My starting summon is a small skeleton-Chapter 234 - 231 Guzhentian

Among all the Summoned Beasts in Lu Wu's house, Hanhan was the most special.

It grew stronger by taking hits.

The more severe the beating, the stronger it became.

And now, the beating it was enduring was evidently severe.

It leaped onto Lu Wu, and in just a few minutes, it had leveled up to Boss 2 Star.

With Hanhan's increase in level, Lu Wu's soul was strengthened, enhancing his resilience to beatings.

The group of giants, seeing this, shouted "battle" even more fiercely.

And as the giants shouted "battle" more intensely, Lu Wu and Hanhan's progress accelerated even more.

Thus, very soon, Hanhan reached Boss 3 Star and madly rushed towards the Leader Level.

At this rate, it could become a leader in half an hour, barring any surprises.

But everything has its limits.

No matter how incredible Hanhan's talent was, it couldn't grow stronger indefinitely.

It still had to adhere somewhat to the law of conservation of energy; Hanhan needed the energy and potential within it to support its growth.

And after two continuous breakthroughs, Hanhan's potential was almost exhausted.

Advancing further, it might reach the leader level, but the cost of a forced breakthrough would be unbearable.

Not to mention a forced breakthrough to leader level, even now, both the bird and Lu Wu were suffering.

Lu Wu's face had turned much paler.

Yuan Hua and the others clearly understood this as well.

"We can't let them continue like this, go take care of it."

"Why should I go? Isn't Elder Tie there too?"

"Didn't you see he doesn't even trust himself?"

Thinking about it, Sun Kongkong realized it was true. If the old man handled it, Lu Wu might accidentally explode, so Sun Kongkong had no choice but to go, touching his nose.

In a flash, Sun Kongkong appeared at Lu Wu's bedside.

But just as he appeared, a fist the size of a casserole smashed towards his head.

Sun Kongkong's expression changed: "Oh shit, Elder Tie, don't hit me, I'm one of us!"

It was no use; the fist still smashed onto his forehead, sending him crashing into the wall.

After the hit, the old man said, "Ah, it's little Sun.

I thought you were some villain. I got carried away, are you alright?"

Trust you, my ass, you rotten old man.

Sun Kongkong was certain that the old man did it on purpose, just to get back at him for earlier, but there was nothing he could do.

He couldn't beat him, so what else could he do?

Of course, he chose to forgive him.

Sun Kongkong said he was fine while covering his swollen face, limping over to Lu Wu, and took out two fruits from his bosom—one he stuffed in Lu Wu's mouth, and the other in Hanhan's.

Then he took out a token engraved with the character "suppress," placing it on the heads of Lu Wu, the bird, and Little Skeleton.

As the "suppress" character was placed on Lu Wu's forehead,

In Lu Wu's mental world, the massive tablet, the frightening giants, and the repeated shouts of "battle" all began to dissipate.

At the same time, a unique power surged into Lu Wu's consciousness.

In that moment, pain vanished, and joy doubled.

Amidst this joy, Lu Wu vaguely sensed that something extra had appeared in his brain.

Ten minutes later.

The joy disappeared, and Lu Wu woke from his coma.

The first thing he did upon waking was to check his attributes.

...

Name: Lu Wu

Power: Professional Summoner (Boss 2 Star)

Mastered Skills: Charging (Master), Slap Lu Wu (Master), Unyielding·Growth (Master)

Summoner Talent: Power of Inheritance (Unawakened)

Damage Sharing (Entry-Level) (Capable of establishing a link among one's Summoned Beasts to share the damage among them.

Currently, at most one shared target can be established.)

...

The Charging skill improved to Master, and a new talent for Damage Sharing had been added.

This was the gain from this ordeal for Lu Wu.

Considering the gains, they weren't too bad, as the previous pains weren't endured in vain.

As Lu Wu looked at his attributes, he also noticed the particularly satisfied Hanhan lying on him, and took the opportunity to check Hanhan's attributes as well.

...

Name: Ice Sparrow (First Evolution)

Power: 3 Star (Boss)

Quality: Bronze (Enhanced)?

Attribute: Ice

State: Satisfied (The beating was so comfortable!)

Weakness: Fire

Special Skill: Unyielding·Growth (Master)

Basic Skills: Defense (Master), Dodge (Master), Cold Aura (Master), Ice Shield (Master), Ice Needle (Master)

Advanced Skills: Cold Ice Body (Master)

Talent: Enhanced Recovery Speed (Advanced)

Damage Absorption (Advanced) (Once a certain level of damage is absorbed, the power can be unleashed)

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Description: For this silly bird, defense and dodge are obviously not skills that a bird should possess.

Such skills would hinder it from taking hits!

...

Lu Wu was truly astonished by the bird's sudden enhancement.

Wasn't this silly creature just one star before? How did it almost reach leader level just while he was asleep?

But that's not the main issue, where's Little Skeleton?

Lu Wu clearly remembered that the little guy was blown away along with him.

Lu Wu was particularly worried about its safety.

When he turned his head, Lu Wu got a shock.

When he woke up, Little Skeleton had also just woken up.

The first thing Little Skeleton did after waking up was to check on Lu Wu, and after making sure Lu Wu was okay, albeit looking a bit silly, it looked down at its phone.

Upon looking, thunder sparked from Little Skeleton's skeleton.

Sad (Little Skeleton's phone is broken! It's Little Skeleton's favorite phone, and Little Skeleton doesn't want a new one!)

When Lu Wu saw this state, his gaze fell on Little Skeleton's phone.

...

Name: Little Skeleton's Phone

Quality: Silver

State: Damaged

Description: The core was shattered by a powerful force, the phone is severely damaged, but the data and the pig are not lost, there's still a possibility to fix it.

...

Seeing these attributes, Lu Wu finally sighed in relief.

It's good that it's not completely broken, if it were, and the data and the pig inside were lost, Lu Wu would have really been at a loss.

"Don't worry, don't worry, the phone isn't destroyed, Lu Wu will help Little Skeleton fix the phone."

Little Skeleton's pupil fire flickered, the state changed.

Suspicious (Really? Is Lu Wu not deceiving Little Skeleton?)

"No, definitely not, don't worry, Lu Wu will certainly be able to fix your phone."

Lu Wu had a bit of a trust foundation with Little Skeleton.

After getting a definite answer from Lu Wu, Little Skeleton calmed down and stopped crying, but it started tugging at Lu Wu, urging him to fix the phone right now.

"Not now, this isn't a good place to fix the phone, we need to go back to fix it!"

Little Skeleton's pupil fire sparkled, and it began acting coquettishly by pulling on Lu Wu's sleeve.

(Can we go back? Little Skeleton doesn't like this place, Little Skeleton wants to go back and fix the phone.)

Lu Wu was both amused and frustrated, soothing the little one while casually checking out its attributes.

Compared to the silly bird and Lu Wu, Little Skeleton's attributes hadn't changed much.

Its power was still two stars, as it hadn't advanced and therefore didn't increase.

In terms of skills, except for [Charging] and [Thunder Strike], which had been advanced to master level, other skills had not moved.

On the talent side, the two that had already awakened remained unchanged, and the one still awakening had progressed from ten percent to seventy percent.

Lu Wu was somewhat disappointed that it had not fully awakened.

While Lu Wu was lost in his thoughts, a coughing sound came from nearby.

Lu Wu turned his head only to discover that a grandson had appeared in his hospital room at some unknown time.

"It seems you're almost well now."

Seeing Lu Wu, who had been lost in his thoughts since waking up, finally noticing him, Sun Kongkong hurriedly said, "Then we should talk about compensation now."

"Compensation?"

Lu Wu was puzzled, "What compensation?"

"You just collapsed the War Soul Hall, have you forgotten about that already?"

"War Soul Hall? Collapsed? I did? Really?"

Lu Wu wasn't deliberately denying it; he honestly didn't know.

At this moment, Tie Xiong stood up: "Young man, don't falsely accuse others. I was the one who brought down the War Soul Hall, it had nothing to do with him."

Well, between his own innocence and his boss's fortune, the old man knew clearly what to choose.

He had nothing to lose, but the boss's money was important.

Seeing how quickly and willingly the old man took the blame, Sun Kongkong couldn't help shaking his head.

"Alright, let's not count the War Soul Hall incident. Let's talk about how you and your bird just ate two of my Spiritual Origin Fruits."

Lu Wu still looked confused.

"What Spiritual Origin Fruits? Did I eat them?"

"No, I was watching the whole time, absolutely not, this kid is trying to scam you!"

The old man declared that he would definitely protect his boss's financial security.

Lu Wu was still a bit dazed.

He really did not know whether he had eaten them or not, but considering that the other party was a bigshot from the Cultivation Center, Lu Wu had no choice but to reluctantly say,

"Well, although I don't remember this incident, if you say I ate them, then let's just say I did. How much do I owe you?"

"Little grandson, our boss definitely didn't eat them, you dare to bully my boss and see what happens!"

Alright, these two guys, one playing the aggrieved card and the other playing tough, left Sun Kongkong without any options.

In the end, he stopped playing mind games with Lu Wu.

He came straight to the point with Lu Wu.

"Your Little Skeleton's phone broke, right? How confident are you in fixing it?"

Lu Wu was a bit confused, this guy jumped topics so quickly, they were just talking about compensation, and now they were discussing the phone.

Lu Wu glanced at Little Skeleton and touched his own nose.

"I'm pretty confident, I can definitely fix this phone!"

As soon as Little Skeleton heard Lu Wu's words, his eyes sparkled with joy.

Joyful (Lu Wu will fix it, Lu Wu is the best!)

But at that moment, Sun Kongkong decided to play devil's advocate.

"Are you sure? If I'm not mistaken, your phone was damaged by the War Soul Tablet, and there is still the power of the War Soul Tablet lingering inside it. Repairing such a phone won't be easy.

That power is like a ticking time bomb, and a single misstep could ruin your entire repair effort.

In my estimation, your chances of successfully repairing it are less than five percent."

Little Skeleton didn't like hearing this at all.

He lashed out aggressively at Sun Kongkong.

Angry (Don't talk nonsense, you villain, Lu Wu is the best, and he will definitely fix Little Skeleton's phone.)

Sun Kongkong ignored the aggressive Little Skeleton and shifted his focus to Lu Wu.

"I have something here that can neutralize the power of the 'War Soul Tablet' and a skill for crafting tools. Both could be really helpful for fixing your phone. Would you like them? I can give them to you if you want."

By now, Lu Wu had figured it out.

This guy definitely needed something from him, otherwise, he wouldn't be rambling so much.

So, he spread his hands and said straightforwardly, "Just tell me what you need."

Lu Wu looked at him, not saying a word, but the intent was clear.

Sun Kongkong cracked a smile, "You know about the Cultivation Master competition, right?"

"I do," Lu Wu nodded.

"Would you be interested in participating?"

"I don't think I can participate."

Lu Wu was baffled; he did want to participate since it was a Cultivation Master competition, which he could possibly learn a lot from, but he had inadvertently advanced to Master Level, while his peers were still amateurs and professionals.

That made Lu Wu quite regretful.

Alas, if only his progress could have been a bit slower, he could have participated in this year's competition.

Since Sun Kongkong brought it up, there must be a preparation.

"You definitely can't as a contestant, but you could participate in other roles, like a referee, or a judge."

Hearing this, Lu Wu found it interesting indeed.

If progressing too fast prevented him from competing, acting as a referee or a judge seemed like a viable alternative.

However, Lu Wu was puzzled by Sun Kongkong's reasoning for inviting him to the Cultivation Master competition.

Wait a minute, Lu Wu suddenly remembered that the first time Sun Kongkong met him today, he had mentioned this topic and also mentioned not giving money to the old man.

He had dismissed it at the time, but now recalling it, Lu Wu vaguely understood Sun Kongkong's purpose.

"It seems you've guessed it, yes, exactly, I want you to rig the competition!"

Lu Wu wouldn't accept this.

He was a decent young man; he couldn't just rig the competition because someone asked him to.

Justice and integrity still mattered to him.

"If you don't go, Guzhentian will win the championship 100%."

Lu Wu sharply noticed the loophole.

"What's the relation between Guzhentian and Gutian?"

Sun Kongkong smiled, "His son!"

Hearing this, Lu Wu narrowed his eyes, "Then I must do it!"

...

In Beijing, at the Gu Family's house.

Today, the previously arrogant Gutian was lying on a sickbed.

Clearly, the old man's beating had been quite severe.

So severe that even spending a fortune on top-notch medical experts couldn't heal him immediately.

From the looks of it, he would probably need to stay in bed for a while.

Suddenly, a soft sound came, and the door of Gutian's room was carefully pushed open.

Despite the cautious approach, it still woke Gutian up.

"Didn't I say not to disturb me without my orders? Get out!"

You have to admit, Gutian still managed to convey an imposing presence.

A roar made everyone within a hundred meters tremble, yet, unexpectedly, the person who entered the room did not leave.

Gutian furiously said, "What, didn't you hear my words..."

"Father, it's me!"

At this moment, that person came forward to the bedside of Gutian.

Seeing who it was, Gutian's demeanor changed instantly, becoming gentle and kind.

"Tiān'er, it's you?

Those wretched servants, I told them to keep quiet, not to disturb you. You have the finals tomorrow..."

"It won't matter, it's just a game of house after all."

Guzhentian said indifferently, brimming with confidence, and Gutian nodded proudly.

"Yes, yes, my son Tiān has the talent of a Grandmaster; how could those mediocrities compare to my son."

For Gutian,

If there was anything he was most proud of in his life, it was having a son like Guzhentian.

Guzhentian had shown extraordinary talent from a young age.

At three, he could read; by five, he began learning cultivation knowledge, and by the age of ten, he had already reached the professional level.

Now at 21, he had actually already reached the Master Level.

He was busy with his own projects and hadn't had time to get certified before this year's competition.

What would certification have to do with Lu Wu?

Besides, this was just his talent in Sky Suppressing Cultivation. Not only was he skilled in cultivation, but his talent as a summoner was equally terrifying.

At 18, he opened his initial Summoned Beast.

Though the initial creature was only of silver quality, it didn't limit Gutian's rise.

In just one year, he got his initial Summoned Beast to Boss Level, and now at 21, his beast had reached Leader 3 stars, just one step away from the Lord Level.

What do you call Grandmaster potential?

Gutian was exactly that!

And he was both literary and martially gifted.

In Gutian's view, his son was the most talented genius in the world, and Lu Wu was just a pretender.

That was why he had slapped Lu Wu.

The phone was one reason, but another was that he didn't want Lu Wu stealing the glory that belonged to his son.

There were other factors involved as well.

So from the start, his mindset was to keep Lu Wu down, until his son reached the top with the dual title of Master of Beast Cultivation and Summoning.

He had made thorough preparations, but then Liu Cheng and Tie Xiong came out of nowhere and not only disrupted his plan, but even left him injured like this.

Luckily, Yuan Hua feared the people behind him and did not punish him too severely—just docked a few months' salary.

However, now that his own son, who he prided so much in, saw him in such a sorry state, Gutian felt extremely embarrassed.

"Damn brat, don't let me find an opportunity, or I'll make you pay back a hundredfold for today's embarrassment!"

A father knows his son best, and this saying applied to Sons as well.

Although Gutian didn't voice it, Gutian could guess what his father was thinking.

So, while tucking a blanket over his father, Gutian said, "After the Cultivation Master competition ends tomorrow, I might as well meet this Lu Wu."

"Don't do anything foolish, I heard that Tie Xiong is acting like his bodyguard now, if you go there…"

"Son isn't looking for a fight. Isn't he the youngest Cultivation Master? I, as a 'junior,' would like to ask for his guidance."

Gutian understood his son's implication; he was preparing to win back some honor on the cultivation front.

After hesitating a moment, Gutian didn't refuse but grinned and said, "Alright, I'll go with you then, and see how this so-called Cultivation Master advises you."

Obviously,

even after seeing Lu Wu perform impressively, Gutian still did not believe that Lu Wu could match his son.

To him, there wasn't even a basis for comparison between Lu Wu and Gutian.

One had been forcefully accelerated in just over a year, while the other was a talent growing diligently since the age of five.

What basis for comparison could there be between the two?

"So what if Lu Wu got his Master certificate? My son Zhen Tian will show him who is the real genius!"

And almost exactly when Gutian was proud and pleased, his phone rang.

"Who is it at this hour?"

Gutian sounded displeased but checked the caller ID. After seeing it was one of his lackeys, he answered, "What's up?"

"Director, over an hour ago Elder Tie took Lu Wu to the War Soul Hall."

"So they went, what's there to fuss about?"

"No, after they went to the War Soul Hall, it collapsed right after Lu Wu entered."

"Collapsed, how could the War Soul Hall just collapse?"

"Deputy Director Sun and the others are blaming Elder Tie for it, but I think it was Lu Wu.

He passed out after the collapse and just recently woke up.

I heard his Summoned Beast leveled up two stars, and also, his phone seems to have broken."

"A broken phone?"

Gutian exclaimed as he hastily stood up.

The sudden movement aggravated his injuries, making him cry out in pain. However, he couldn't care less about that now; his focus was entirely on the phone.

"Are you sure his phone is broken?"

"Yes, I saw him trying to console that little Skeleton."

This piece of news was hard for Gutian to swallow.

"Damn! How could it break? What does it look like now?"

"I saw a crack."

Gutian was somewhat relieved: "Just a crack? Is the Summoned Beast out?"

"No!"

With that response, Gutian became even happier.

"That's good, that's good!"

The phone was very important to him; a total breakdown would have been very distressing.

However, just as Gutian was briefly relieved, his subordinate had more bad news.

"Additionally, I heard Deputy Director Sun plans to let Lu Wu participate in tomorrow's Cultivation Master competition."

"He's entering the competition? It's already the finals, plus he's got a Master certificate, how can he compete... wait!"

Gutian's expression changed: "That Sun, he's not planning to make Lu Wu a judge or a referee, is he?"

Almost at the same moment, Gutian's phone received a notification about a change in tomorrow's competition lineup.

An additional referee was added.

Seeing this message, Gutian's lips curved slightly: "Interesting, it seems he wants to be my judge? Well then, let me see if you're qualified enough!"

…

For the cross-dressing challenge of 15,000, my brain nearly exploded, but fortunately, I succeeded.

Help me check for any typos, and I'll correct them later!