I'm Just a Beast Tamer

Chapter 55: Chapter 53: Sea Turtle Shell, Great Black’s Spring?

With two Beast Cages for taming Pet Beasts simultaneously, Jiang Zuo’s various attributes had improved significantly compared to eight years ago.

Lifespan: 29/146

Beast Taming Reputation: 561

Attributes: Strength 126.8; Physique 41.3; Agility 40.8

Even though he had to offer three years of his life to the stone tablet annually, Jiang Zuo’s lifespan was still approaching 150 years. His Physique and Agility Attributes, thanks to the Black Stone Fish, had each increased by about 12 points, narrowing the gap with his Strength attribute.

This year, as planned, Jiang Zuo had Ruan Jianglan rent a small storefront in Lizhou City to specialize in bone ornaments.

Over the previous four years, Jiang Zuo had purchased over a hundred bone items annually. After four years, the total was close to five hundred pieces.

Among all these bone items, he had not found a single Obsession Relic.

These items, which had been piling up in his storage bag, became the shop’s merchandise after Ruan Jianglan opened for business.

The ledgers Ruan Jianglan had kept before now came in handy.

Ruan Jianglan finally understood that Jiang Zuo had planned this all along; otherwise, he wouldn’t have had her start keeping ledgers so early.

"From today on, you’ll need to keep ledgers for both purchases and sales. If someone comes to the shop to sell bone items, use your experience from these past few years to buy anything at a reasonable price. I’ll come by the shop once every half-month to check on things. Only after I’ve personally appraised the items can they be sold."

"I don’t require the shop to be profitable, but if it does turn a profit, you can take a thirty percent share."

"If a customer wants to sell an item at too high a price, you don’t have to buy it. Instead, you can sign a consignment contract with them. Let them leave the item in the shop for us to sell on their behalf. If it sells, we’ll collect a fee. If it doesn’t, there’s no charge."

Jiang Zuo instructed Ruan Jianglan.

It was impossible to buy every single bone item in Lizhou City. If he tried, hordes of people would surely start bringing in all sorts of worthless bones, and Ruan Jianglan would be completely overwhelmed.

And there was no need to buy the overly expensive ones; they would be too difficult to resell.

The solution Jiang Zuo came up with was consignment. In fact, it was for the sake of this consignment model that he had Ruan Jianglan open the shop in the first place.

Once this shop was up and running, most of the bone items in Lizhou City would pass through its doors at some point.

...

The news of a new shop specializing in bone ornaments didn’t cause much of a stir in Lizhou City.

However, those who were interested, or merchants who dealt in related goods, quickly learned of the small shop’s existence.

Business at the shop wasn’t booming, but it wasn’t dead either. Ruan Jianglan met different customers every day, and her knowledge grew rapidly.

Jiang Zuo’s investment soon paid off.

「Two years later.」

Jiang Zuo came by as usual, carrying a string of fish, pretending to be a seller visiting Ruan Jianglan.

When he saw a new batch of items Ruan Jianglan had recently acquired, Jiang Zuo’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Six years and an investment of over ten thousand taels of silver had finally led him to a new Obsession Relic.

This Obsession Relic, which glowed with a faint blue light in Jiang Zuo’s eyes, was a Turtle Shell of a modest size.

"I’m taking this Turtle Shell. This one hundred taels of silver is your reward," Jiang Zuo said, picking up the Turtle Shell and turning to Ruan Jianglan.

"Thank you, Zhao! I’ll keep working hard!"

Ruan Jianglan was surprised and delighted, but she didn’t refuse.

After so many years with Jiang Zuo, she knew very well that he came from an extraordinary background and was not short on money.

Her son, Ruan Xiaoxian, was now over six years old. She was no longer a naive little girl and understood that money was absolutely essential if she wanted to change her son’s fate.

Ruan Jianglan had never understood why Jiang Zuo poured money into these bone trinkets. Now that she saw he had actually found something he wanted and was even rewarding her for it, she felt a sense of relief.

...

——Sea Turtle Shell: A Tier 1 Obsession Relic, containing the lingering wish of a sea turtle to see the ocean. It was a sea turtle hatched on land. One day, it learned of its marine origins and desperately longed to see the great sea. Unfortunately, this became a wish it could never fulfill. Gaze upon the changing scenery of the four seasons by a beautiful coastline to obtain the Beast Soul Power contained within.

The Turtle Shell was absorbed by the Beast Taming System. This obsession was surprisingly simple.

However, Jiang Zuo had no idea where to find a beautiful coastline in this world.

Besides, he had no plans to leave anytime soon, so the sea turtle’s obsession would have to wait.

Having found one Obsession Relic, Jiang Zuo was prepared to continue losing money on the venture.

But to his great surprise, when they tallied the accounts at the end of the year, Ruan Jianglan happily told him that the shop had turned a profit.

The reason was that, one day, Ruan Jianglan had mentioned a beautiful-looking item in the shop that was priced a bit too high and just wouldn’t sell.

She was unwilling to sell it at a huge loss.

So Jiang Zuo casually told her she could invent a moving story for it.

At first, Ruan Jianglan wasn’t sure if this would work, but she never took Jiang Zuo’s words lightly.

Then, to her utter astonishment, she discovered that when she presented them to customers, these beautiful ornaments with stories were incredibly appealing. Not only did the items sell quickly, but they also fetched a higher price.

So, Ruan Jianglan began to invent stories for various items in the shop.

Not only did the bone ornaments sell better, but more customers also came to the shop, and revenue increased significantly.

Jiang Zuo was speechless when he heard this. He could only sigh. ’This kind of thing really works wonders on people with a bit of money to spare.’

In the blink of an eye, another three years passed.

It was now the fourteenth year since Jiang Zuo had settled by the Li River.

After he had recovered, he had only spent fourteen years in Red Fox Town. In the blink of an eye, an equivalent amount of time had passed here by the Li River.

Jiang Zuo was now thirty-five years old, gradually entering middle age.

Even Great Black was fifteen. If he were a person, he’d be approaching the age of marriage.

But what made Jiang Zuo want to cough up blood was that this fellow, Great Black, was still a single dog!

At first, Jiang Zuo worried that Great Black might sneak off and have puppies with a stray female, and that he would miss out on an heir to continue its Enhanced Bloodline without knowing.

But soon, Jiang Zuo realized his worries were unnecessary.

That fellow, Great Black, never strayed far.

The thing he did most every day was hang out with Jiang Zuo’s school of Black Stone Fish in the Li River, stirring up trouble in the water.

Jiang Zuo could never have imagined that a dog could get along so well with a school of fish.

Later, Jiang Zuo couldn’t stand it anymore and urged Great Black to hurry up and find a mate to produce an heir.

Who would have thought Great Black would be completely uninterested? His general sentiment was that the dogs out there were too weak and unworthy of mating with him.

Jiang Zuo wanted to spit blood when he heard that.

’It seems being too smart isn’t always a good thing,’ he thought.

On this day, Jiang Zuo was fishing by the river as usual. Great Black was lying beside him, paws dipped in the water, playing with a few Black Stone Fish.

"Great Black, I heard a family nearby has a very beautiful large white dog. Want to go check her out?" Jiang Zuo said to Great Black, not ready to give up.

After more than a decade of development, the area outside Lizhou City had also changed considerably.

As Lizhou City grew more crowded, many wealthy families found it too noisy and began building villas and manors in scenic, quiet spots outside the city.

Some of the elders and children in their families would come to stay for a while when they had the time.

The stretch of riverbank where Jiang Zuo had settled was once deserted, but now, several such manors had been built not far from his place over the years.

Jiang Zuo had gotten used to living here. After more than ten years, even though he kept a low profile, most of the people nearby knew of his existence.

No one tried to drive him away, so Jiang Zuo didn’t bother to move and just continued living there.

A few days ago, he heard that a nearby manor had a very beautiful large white dog, and an idea sparked in his mind.

After all, if Great Black didn’t produce any offspring, he wouldn’t be able to test his theories about Mutation.

"Woof, woof."

But Great Black just gave two perfunctory barks, completely unmoved.

Jiang Zuo was helpless. He couldn’t exactly force Great Black to mate.

But speak of the devil, and he shall appear.

In the distance, a boy and a girl, both a little over ten years old, were walking toward the riverbank, leading a large white dog with a beautiful coat. Behind them followed a burly guard.

The three people and one dog made their way to the edge of the Li River, preparing to fish.

But the white dog spotted Great Black from afar, let out a bark, and broke free from the child’s grasp, dashing over like a bolt of lightning.

"Hey, Bai, Bai, don’t run!"

The little girl had been holding the leash. Seeing Bai run off, she shouted and hurried after her.

Seeing this, the little boy and the guard naturally rushed over as well.

Bai?

Jiang Zuo’s eyes lit up at the name. ’What a great name. Sounds like a match made in heaven for Great Black!’

The white dog raced up to Great Black and circled him, barking twice.

Great Black, who had been half-dozing in the sun, opened his eyes at the sound. He glanced at the white dog, then closed his eyes again, ignoring her completely. He was acting impossibly aloof.

Seeing this, Jiang Zuo wished he could go over and kick the stubborn fellow into the river.

"Bai, what’s wrong with you?"

The little girl ran over, panting, and grabbed Bai’s leash again.

But she was too young to understand why Bai was acting this way.

"This black dog is so well-raised. No wonder," the guard, Sun Yunfeng, a martial artist, couldn’t help but say in surprise upon seeing Great Black.

Seeing that Jiang Zuo was just a fisherman, Sun Yunfeng thought for a moment before speaking to him. "Brother, is this black dog for sale? I guarantee the price will satisfy you!"

"If this fellow is willing to go with you, I won’t even charge you," Jiang Zuo replied lazily.

Hearing this, Sun Yunfeng immediately fell silent. He knew it was impossible to buy this dog.

"What should we do, Sun? Bai won’t leave," the little girl said, using all her strength to pull the white dog away, but she refused to leave and wouldn’t budge.

"In that case, would it be alright if we fished here?" Sun could only ask.

The young master and young lady had come out to fish and relax. If the white dog wouldn’t leave, they could only fish here.

"No problem. I don’t own the Li River. You can fish wherever you like," Jiang Zuo said, having no objections.

He had already dismissed the school of Black Stone Fish by the riverbank, and all his other secrets were in his storage bag, so he wasn’t worried about anyone discovering anything.

And although Great Black was acting uninterested, Jiang Zuo mused, ’There’s a saying: "a woman’s pursuit of a man is separated only by a veil." Maybe if they spend a little more time together, sparks will fly?’

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