The festival fires had barely cooled before a new urgency swept through the City of Beginning. Every dawn brought lines of hunters, adventure guild members, and eager apprentices to the academy and its sprawling new annex—a complex devoted not to theory, but to the practical mysteries of Douluo's spirit beasts.
My days were now filled with the tang of blood and metal, the scent of tanned hides, and the constant clang of blacksmiths testing their skill on bones that shimmered with latent power. As I, Ye Caiqian, moved among them, I found the questions never ended.
What made a beast "evolved"? How could we best use its remains? Could the same spirit power that burned within us be harnessed in iron, leather, or bone?
With a team of scholars, smiths, and my own brothers, I launched a systematic study—our first true research guild dedicated to the science of the spirit world's materials.
It began with a wolf the size of a horse, slain by a team of second-tier evolvers. Its fur glimmered faintly, resisting the sharpest knives. Its bones were nearly unbreakable; its blood, still faintly warm with power, sparked the air as it spilled.
We dissected, tested, and catalogued every part—jotting observations, sketching diagrams, preserving samples for the healers, smiths, and tanners to experiment with. There were setbacks: a careless apprentice who touched a still-charged fang was shocked into unconsciousness for hours; another, more fortunate, found that powder from the beast's scales, when mixed with clay, hardened into a nearly indestructible tile.
Tie Lao, ever the pioneer, hammered the wolf's thigh bone into the shaft of a new spear, declaring it the finest weapon she'd ever held.
"Every piece of these beasts is a treasure," she said. "But without order, we'll waste more than we use."
Order—this was what we needed most.
It was during a late-night council with the heads of every association—hunters, smiths, healers, the academy, and the adventure guild—that the idea finally crystallized. We gathered in the Academy's new war-room, surrounded by tables groaning under the weight of beast pelts, teeth, and spirit crystals.
I addressed the room, voice calm but insistent: "We have no common language to classify the spirit beasts. A hundred different names for every stage, and none of them help when it's time to distribute tasks or rewards. This must change."
Hu Shan, leader of the Adventure Guild, nodded. "Our people risk their lives every day. We need to know: which beasts can be hunted by a single first-tier evolver? Which ones need a team? How can we warn new arrivals of the dangers?"
After hours of debate, heated argument, and no small amount of ale, the council reached agreement.
From that night, every beast—wild or tamed, animal or spirit—would be classified by the number of times it had "evolved" through the absorption of spirit energy.A beast who had evolved once would be Tier 1, twice for Tier 2, and so on. The most powerful—such as the Fire Dragon—would be classified by Tier and a special designation ("Sovereign Beast" for those above the fourth tier).
The same, we decided, would apply to humans: from then on, cultivators would be ranked by Tier, not "Realm."First-tier evolvers would train together, second-tiers would lead squads, and adventure guild tasks would be assigned accordingly.
The new system spread with stunning speed. Within weeks, the Adventure Guild posted new task boards in every district—color-coded, each listing the tier of the beast to be hunted, the minimum number and tier of evolvers needed, and the expected danger.
Academy instructors rewrote their lessons. Children played at "tier battles" in the square, pretending to be wolf, bear, and eagle lords. Blacksmiths invented new forging standards: Tier 2 bones for heavy weapons, Tier 1 skins for armor, Tier 3 beast cores as sources of elemental enhancement.
I personally oversaw the creation of the Beast Materials Codex—a living document detailing every known property of evolved beast parts:
Which bones made the strongest spear shafts
Which scales could withstand fire
Which claws carried venom, and how best to neutralize it
How to safely harvest and use beast cores for medicine, crafting, or cultivation
My brothers, Ye Xuan and Ye Rong, became the city's first official "Beast Appraisers," leading teams to evaluate every trophy brought in, issuing certificates, and settling disputes with a mixture of humor and authority.
The system brought order, but also a surge of new energy. The adventure guilds flourished. Teams were formed not just by friendship or family, but by tier and element—air evolvers paired with fire, water with earth, each group learning to complement and protect one another.
Soon, explorers from neighboring settlements arrived to learn, train, and sometimes test their strength in the beast-haunted wilds. Competition flourished, but so did camaraderie.
On market days, merchants displayed goods labeled by beast tier:"Tier 2 Bear Hide Cloaks—Warm Even in Spirit Storms!""Tier 1 Wolf Bone Needles—Never Break Again!""Special: Dragon Scale Pendant—Protection from Fire!"
Tie Lao, always pushing forward, even forged the city's first "Tier 3 Alliance Weapon"—a warhammer with a core of dragon bone and a head of alloyed steel, so powerful that when she struck the ground in demonstration, the resulting shockwave split a log in two.
For me, the work was never-ending, but also exhilarating. Every new system was a step toward a civilization that could thrive, not just survive.
One evening, as I finalized the latest Beast Materials Codex with my council and guild leaders, I realized:
"We are not just organizing. We are building the foundation for a future world where humans and spirit beasts alike are understood—where knowledge and courage will always be stronger than fear."
In a quiet moment, I gathered with my closest companions—Tie Lao, my brothers, Hu Shan, and several senior guild leaders.
"We've come far," I said, "but there's still much to learn. The wild is full of mysteries. Some beasts may have gifts we can't even imagine yet."
Tie Lao grinned. "Let them come. We're ready now. With this system, no beast will catch us unprepared."
Ye Rong laughed. "Next time, maybe the dragon will run from us!"
Even in our laughter, there was respect for what we'd survived—and resolve for what was to come.