When it came to research, the most frustrating thing was having no inspiration and no direction.
Now that he had a brand-new line of thought, whether it was correct or not, Jiang Xing finally had something worth exploring.
He first started from common impressions and listed corresponding "negative traits" for the five attributes of Beauty, Cool, Cute, Tough, and Clever.
Some traits overlapped across multiple categories.
For example, Ugliness as a negative trait could be associated with Beauty, Cool, and Cute alike. Assigning it to any one of them would be reasonable.
For traits like these, Jiang Xing didn't try to split them apart or forcibly categorize them under a single attribute.
After all, Pet Beasts developing multiple evolution paths was extremely common.
And Beauty, Cool, and Cute were themselves highly similar attributes, differing mainly in "style."
It was entirely possible that they could interact with additional factors such as gender or personality, allowing the same Pet Beast to display completely different evolution paths depending on those variables...
In short, it was best to test everything rather than jump to conclusions.
Once he had identified the negative traits, inferring what kinds of "Contest Pet Beasts" might exist became much easier.
Even so, it was far from a task that could be completed casually—
When Jiang Xing previously identified the Ugly Waterfowl, he hadn't relied on the concept of beauty or ugliness. Instead, he had relied on the move Return, along with the additional condition that it had no known evolution forms.
It had essentially been a perfect combination of timing, circumstances, and luck.
The "negative traits" he had now summarized were far broader than conditions such as moves or evolution forms.
Even if he excluded all evolved forms and considered only base forms, he would still need to filter through more than a hundred thousand species of base-form Pet Beasts.
Furthermore, things like "Pet Beast names" and "Pet Beast descriptions" weren't system-generated labels.
They were written by Jiang Xing and countless other Pet Beast scholars.
Unlike Pet Beast moves, which were relatively precise, descriptions contained plenty of subjective interpretation. Some even incorporated legends, folklore, or outright speculation...
Jiang Xing himself had once described the Rainbow Dragon Hatchling as the King of Light Dragons.
If other Pet Beast scholars wanted to slip in a bit of personal bias, that was completely normal. As long as it was roughly accurate, nobody cared too much.
As a result, Jiang Xing had to cross-reference academic papers to verify whether a Compendium description truly reflected a species trait, effectively increasing the difficulty of the screening process.
'Standardize measurements... no, standardize the Pet Beast Compendium. It's absolutely necessary!'
The workload was enormous, and this was merely the most basic level of data retrieval.
Jiang Xing directly assigned the task to the Giant Magnet Entity, having it hold two tablets while splitting its consciousness into two processing units dedicated entirely to the job.
Once it completed the searches and statistical analysis, he would handle the final screening himself.
After resolving that matter, Jiang Xing shifted his attention back to the Contest Appeal mission itself—
Research related to Contest Appeal evolutions was really just a side project born from his personal interest and his unwillingness to see this power remain buried and forgotten.
The mission itself didn't require discovering more Contest evolutions...
Well, there was only one Contest-related Pet Beast in the Pokémon world. Even if the system wanted more, it had no foundation to build on!
So regardless of whether the Contest Appeal evolution research could be successfully completed, Jiang Xing could still finish the mission by refining the Contest Appeal system and establishing a Contest.
'A Contest, huh...'
After the conference ended, Jiang Xing's Beauty paper, which he had published through his social media account, quickly spread throughout the public consciousness alongside the birth of the Abyssal Water Phoenix Fledgling.
Although it wasn't as explosive as Friendship or emotional attributes, it was still a brand-new stat.
And every new stat represented an entirely new field of study.
Naturally, it had become a hot topic.
More than a billion people lived in China, yet only a small fraction ever became Beast Tamers.
The overwhelming majority were ordinary people. They couldn't afford combat-oriented Pet Beasts and usually kept only one or two ornamental Pet Beasts as pets and companions.
They might enjoy watching competitions and discussing battles, but those things weren't part of their daily lives.
Their own ornamental Pet Beasts, on the other hand, were directly connected to Beauty.
Who wouldn't want their little companion to become more beautiful?
As a result, after Jiang Xing published his Beauty paper, it gradually influenced trends across the country. The popularity of many Pet Beast breeding centers rose alongside it.
Some breeding centers even launched services such as "Beauty Food Packages," "Pet Beast Care Packages," and "Pet Beast Relaxation Massages," all of which quickly became wildly popular.
Other sharp-eyed entrepreneurs promptly opened facilities such as Pet Beast beauty salons.
Although there was some suspicion of people cashing in on the trend, it also demonstrated how much people cared about their Pet Beasts.
The only reason it generated less discussion was that it couldn't compete with sensational topics like the Light Dragon family and other top-tier Pet Beasts.
This environment, however, could serve as fertile ground for the birth of the Contest—
Unlike battle tournaments, a Contest was fundamentally a beauty competition for Pet Beasts rather than a combat competition.
As such, it didn't focus on strength. It focused solely on whether a Pet Beast was appealing.
Under those circumstances, participants didn't necessarily need to be battle-hardened, highly trained Beast Tamers.
Even ordinary people could bring their ornamental Pet Beasts to participate in a Contest, experience the atmosphere of the event, and perhaps even compete for the title of Contest Champion!
If it gained widespread recognition, it could potentially become the second-largest competition system after Beast Tamer battles!
And it would be a premier event open to everyone!
It had that kind of potential!
Furthermore, as a Pet Beast beauty competition, a Contest wasn't merely an entertainment-oriented event born from an age of peace and prosperity.
Just as the system's mission description had stated—
[Contest Appeal is not merely a form of charm. It also represents the coordination of a Pokémon's mind, condition, power, and every other aspect of its being. It represents tremendous strength.]
Even if the first few Contests were little more than beauty competitions where ordinary people could showcase themselves, once their influence expanded and prize pools increased, they would inevitably attract Beast Tamers who specifically trained Pet Beasts for these competitions and developed specialized strategies.
Those Beast Tamers would quickly discover that if they wanted to outcompete everyone else and crown their Pet Beast a Contest Champion, then every aspect—moves, condition, power, and more—would have to achieve the highest possible level of coordination.
And for a Pet Beast, reaching such a state was itself a form of growth and power.
Eventually, just like in the Pokémon world, a specialized profession of Coordinator Beast Tamers might emerge.
And those top Coordinators could very well become top battle-oriented Beast Tamers as well!
The two paths were not mutually exclusive.
If things developed that way, it would help raise the average standard of Pet Beast training across the entire Beast Tamer community. It would also attract people who had little interest in combat but loved beautiful Pet Beasts, encouraging them to embark on the path of becoming Beast Tamers...
Using the neighboring Pokémon world as an example, the birth of Contests had unquestionably brought more benefits than drawbacks.
'Of course, that's the ideal future...'
'If I want things to develop that way, I'd better intervene and make sure Contests don't simply turn into ordinary beauty pageants.'
Jiang Xing quickly came up with an idea.
Pet Beast researchers held extremely high status, and the title conferment ceremony would attract nationwide attention.
He could use that opportunity to casually introduce the concept of Contests during his acceptance speech and promote the idea a little.
At the very least, it would make the trip worthwhile.