【Summoned Beast：Zhang Ping】

【Master：Zhang Ping】

【Race：Human】

【Potential：⭐⭐⭐】

【Lifespan：89】

【Level：Beginner Level Awakener】

【Grade：2】

【Talent】

【Contract Gem: Consuming physical and mental energy to condense a Contract Gem. Once the target voluntarily accepts, their life, soul, and consciousness will be controlled by the Summoner, but they will also gain the Summoner's potential and luck. After the first use, subsequent uses will slightly enhance the user’s potential and have a 1% chance of awakening a new talent. PS. The talent abilities gained by Summoner Zhang Ping, derived from overdrawn intelligence, potential, and luck, are extremely powerful, but they also carry a great flaw—ambition may not always be a good thing.】

【Absolute Command: You have absolute control over Summoned Beasts. Your orders are unconditionally obeyed.】

【Absolute Obedience: You must obey the Summoner's orders without question.】

【Stable Identification Skill: This skill allows the user to identify a target, with a very small chance of acquiring detailed information. The probability of success increases when the strength difference between the user and the target is smaller. Once an identification is completed for the first time, the chances of success for subsequent identifications of the same target will rise significantly. PS. This talent ability was born from the curiosity of both the Summoned Beast Zhang Ping and the Summoner Zhang Ping.】

【Night Walker: Gain Night Vision, significantly reduced presence at night, dramatically increased speed, reduced weight, and complete invisibility in shadows.】

【Fire Eater: This ability allows the user to recover stamina by consuming flames and convert excess fire into elemental energy stored within the body. Upon releasing this energy, the user temporarily gains the Flame Wreath effect, which lasts until the stored fire energy is depleted.

Additionally, this ability gradually enhances the user's resistance to high temperatures.

PS: Potential is merely potential. Only when it is realized as strength does it become true power.】

...

After some effort, Zhang Ping placed the materials into the mold. He struck it with a heavy hammer and poured Fire Oil over it before sitting down to rest. While recovering, he took the opportunity to check his attributes.

The first thing he noticed was that his potential had lost a star.

However, after reading the remarks for his new talent, he understood the true meaning of potential.

Potential wasn’t equivalent to strength.

It represented the untapped power within his body, yet to be realized.

Only through training or acquiring new talents could potential be transformed into actual strength.

For other Awakeners, or even Mutated Beasts, potential was finite. Zhang Ping, however, could continuously enhance his potential by consuming Contract Gems and then unlock it through training and awakening new talents.

This was a path of endless possibilities!

Reflecting on the remarks, Zhang Ping recalled a detail he had previously noticed when observing a Skyborn Fox.

He had noticed that adult Skyborn Foxes typically had only two stars of potential, while the young Skyborn Fox he had targeted had four stars. At the time, he assumed the cub was a prodigy among Skyborn Foxes, possessing greater potential.

Now, in hindsight, he realized it was because the cub’s potential had yet to be converted into strength.

“Wait, I gained a star when I awakened Night Walker,” Zhang Ping thought.

He quickly recalled the night he had awakened Night Walker, though the specifics were still unclear. After all, he had no way of knowing how much potential Night Walker consumed.

The amount of potential consumed likely varied depending on the ability’s grade. For instance, when he was initially classified under the Ineffective Rank, a truly Ineffective Rank ability would have consumed very little potential.

Following this logic, Night Walker’s potential consumption might be limited, or it simply hadn’t consumed much at the time.

The ranking of Awakeners’ abilities was, in truth, difficult to assess accurately. Appraisers could only provide judgments based on prior experience.

Currently, Mingzhu City categorizes abilities into seven ranks:

[Ineffective Rank]

Abilities that either cannot be activated due to unfulfilled conditions or have no practical use. These abilities are effectively useless. Examples include Silent Fart and Alien Death Ray.

The ability Silent Fart is famous at Mingzhu Ability Academy, though the Awakener’s name remains unknown. The ability is straightforward: it eliminates the sound of the user’s flatulence.

In first-year classes, teachers frequently use this ability as an example.

Meanwhile, the Alien Death Ray belongs to an Awakener whose eyes emit invisible light waves that can instantly kill all aliens. However, since no aliens have ever appeared in Mingzhu City, this ability is classified as Ineffective Rank due to the absence of applicable targets.

[Convenient Rank]

Abilities that provide some personal convenience but have no combat applications. Examples include Immunity to Colds and Tooth Regeneration.

One Awakener with Immunity to Colds later became a doctor. He devoted himself to researching viruses that cause colds, even considering using them as weapons. Unfortunately, he accidentally infected himself with a virus that didn’t cause a cold but induced a high fever. The result? Permanent brain damage.

[Practical Rank]

Abilities that provide significant personal benefits. Examples include Storage Space, Food Augmentation, Eagle Vision, and Enhanced Smell.

The first three abilities are often quite promising in terms of potential development. However, they are classified as Practical Rank because Awakeners with these abilities tend to plateau at the Intermediate Level, rarely advancing to Advanced Level.

In other words, their potential is typically exhausted at the Intermediate Level.

For higher-ranked abilities, the same logic applies: even if endlessly enhanced, potential limitations ultimately cap their growth at specific stages, determining their rank.

Additionally, abilities with overly restrictive activation conditions may also be downgraded.

For example, while Zhang Ping’s Contract Gem only consumes physical and mental energy, other abilities may require sacrifices such as soul fragments, luck, lifespan, or even humanity.

These conditions make frequent use impossible, reducing their overall rank.

[Combat Rank]

Abilities that prove effective in battle. Examples include Iron Body, Rapid Healing, Enhanced Senses, and Identification Skill.

[City-Guardian Rank]

Abilities with the potential to protect an entire city. Examples include Mind Control, Gravity Manipulation, Equipment Forging, and Clairvoyance.

[Nation-Protector Rank]

Abilities with the potential to defend an entire nation. Examples include Enhanced Sixth Sense and Future Prediction.

[Infinite Rank]

Abilities with unimaginable potential and no discernible limits. Examples include Ability Replication, Divine Artifact Forging, and Insightful Vision.

Among these ranks, anyone who awakens a Combat Rank ability is eligible to join the Patrol Squad or Investigation Unit. Certain Practical Rank abilities, after evaluation, may also qualify. For instance, Awakeners with Storage Space are often recruited by the Three Major Organizations as logistics personnel.

At Mingzhu Ability Academy, most Awakeners’ abilities fall into the Convenient or Practical Ranks. Only a select few talents reach Combat Rank. For example, Su Jingyao’s Psychokinesis ability, a Combat Rank talent, allowed him to lift nearly half a ton immediately upon awakening, though he could only sustain it for 30 seconds.

Another example is Zhang Chen, whom Su Jingyao mentioned. His Rock Armor is also a Combat Rank ability.

As for City-Guardian Rank, only one such talent has emerged from Mingzhu Ability Academy—Luo Shiyu.

Luo Shiyu’s ability, Temperature Control, allowed her to effortlessly alter the temperature within a ten-meter radius of her body. Had she not been killed prematurely by the Skyborn Fox, her potential would have made her a pillar of Mingzhu City.

Ranks higher than City-Guardian, such as Nation-Protector and Infinite, haven’t appeared in Mingzhu City for centuries. Their descriptions exist only in textbooks.

For example, two centuries ago, a user of the Infinite Rank ability Ability Replication appeared. This Awakener could replicate any ability below Nation-Protector Rank. Whether he could replicate Infinite Rank abilities remained unknown, as he was the only Infinite Rank Awakener of his era.

Zhang Ping was confident that his Contract Gem ability belonged to the Infinite Rank.

He didn’t even need to replicate others’ abilities. By consuming Contract Gems, he could naturally awaken various talents over time. Reaching omnipotence was simply a matter of persistence.

He didn’t dwell on the thought further. Potential, after all, was just potential.

Despite gaining a new ability, he remained a Beginner Level Awakener, and someone an Intermediate Level Awakener could easily overpower him.

...

The second forging, as expected, failed.

Due to the sudden awakening of his Fire Eater ability, the temperature in the furnace dropped for a while, causing some of the materials to fail to fully integrate into the refined iron. As a result, the Pearl Blade’s intricate patterns showed significant cracks. Without even testing the blade, it was clear that it was ruined.

Zhang Ping felt a bit disappointed, but since he had awakened a new ability, he wasn’t too discouraged.

He casually sat next to the furnace, absorbing the flames. Whenever the flames weakened, he would add more firewood and continue absorbing the flames.

Since his Fire Eater ability was newly awakened, his capacity to store fire elements was limited. After half an hour of absorption, Zhang Ping felt full.

He could feel a surge of energy within his body, but it wasn’t confined to any specific organ. Instead, it dispersed throughout his body with his blood. When he focused, he could make this energy flow like a stream of heat, following his will.

It was like having a new toy. He spent the entire afternoon controlling the heat flow—sometimes concentrating it in his fists, sometimes in his legs, and even experimenting by concentrating it in... more personal areas.

To be honest, this ability was far more enjoyable than both Contract Gem and Night Walker.

Although Contract Gem was powerful, it only created a gem, and the visual effect and control felt rather mundane. When using it, it felt like suddenly becoming a bit tired or drowsy, as both physical and mental energy were consumed.

Night Walker was a passive enhancement at night, nothing more than a passive ability.

Fire Eater, however, was something else entirely.

Fire Eater allowed him to consume flames and control the fire element energy inside his body. Strictly speaking, this was the first truly operational superpower he had encountered.

By evening, he could already manipulate small amounts of fire element energy, wrapping it around his fingers. When the energy leaked from his fingers, it would turn into fire, wrapping around them. At least from a visual perspective, this ability was incredibly cool.

Another bonus was that Zhang Ping realized that when the fire element energy in his body was abundant, it could help him resist the cold, giving him more confidence to meet the mysterious woman who had slipped him the note.

That night, after dinner, he absorbed another round of flames.

Once he was sure Liu Tiefeng was asleep, he left Iron Soul and headed for the small park.