"Return, Return, Return!!"
Jiang Xing sprinted all the way down the mountain and practically burst through the doors of Dr. Xu's research institute.
His violent entrance nearly made the institute's Antique Dolls mistake him for an intruder and attack him.
But Jiang Xing had no ti to care about any of that.
He only wanted to verify his theory as quickly as possible and confirm the "attribute" of the Return move!
If Return truly possessed type-effectiveness interactions…
Then he might have just discovered an entirely new attribute that had remained hidden and unnoticed until now!!
Just the thought of that possibility made Jiang Xing incomparably excited.
He headed straight for the testing room and found the two Clouddown Birds that had been waiting there for his return.
Then he looked around until he found the Move Testing Machine.
This was another type of Pet Beast testing device. Similar to a punching machine, it could withstand a certain degree of Pet Beast attacks and assign a power score based on the extraordinary energy involved.
In addition, through built-in energy stones, it could simulate how different Pet Beast attributes responded to attacks.
Jiang Xing's own institute also had one, though it could only simulate higher-tier attributes such as Light, Dark, Dragon, and Phoenix.
The machine in Dr. Xu's institute, however, was different. It even possessed Ti- and Space-attribute energy stones and could simulate those corresponding damage interactions.
Of course, testing Return didn't require such an advanced machine.
The only reason Jiang Xing chose this one was because he simply couldn't wait anymore and didn't want to waste ti going ho.
He set the Move Testing Machine to tal attribute mode, pointed at the machine, and gave the order.
"Clouddown Bird, use Return!"
One of the Clouddown Birds lunged forward without hesitation and slamd heavily into the machine.
As the extraordinary powers collided, the machine did not budge in the slightest.
The display screen beside it showed a power rating.
266.
Jiang Xing morized the number, then switched the machine's attributes to Water and Wood before giving the order again.
"Use Return!"
Following the collision, the power rating appeared.
267.
The power had only changed by 1 point. Considering that a Pet Beast's exertion was never perfectly consistent, this fell entirely within the margin of error.
In other words, Return showed neither effectiveness nor resistance interactions against those three attributes.
Jiang Xing wasn't disappointed. He continued changing the machine's attributes.
Fire and Earth: 266.
He continued switching attributes.
Wind and Lightning: 265.
He continued switching attributes.
Dark and Poison: 534.
He continued… wait!?
Jiang Xing's breathing stopped for a mont as his gaze locked firmly onto the machine's screen.
He tried his best to control his emotions, but his voice still trembled with excitent.
"One more Return attack!"
The Clouddown Bird gathered power and crashed forcefully into the machine again.
Extraordinary energy collided.
The machine's display revealed the result.
Dark and Poison: 533!
Jiang Xing imdiately switched the machine back to single-attribute mode, separating Dark and Poison for individual tests.
Dark: 532!
Poison: 266!
The two completely different values beca irrefutable proof!
That is—
Return was not an Attribute-less attack move at all.
That damn thing actually had an attribute!!
"Holy shit!"
Even Jiang Xing failed to hold it in and blurted out a curse, instinctively covering his forehead.
What exactly had the Pet Beast scholars from decades ago been doing?!
This was way too unprofessional!
A single Return move had buried two gigantic pitfalls inside it—one called Friendship, and another called Unknown Attribute!
This was completely absurd!
Jiang Xing rubbed his face. It took quite a while before he finally cald down.
Once he regained his composure, he also understood why the previous generation of Pet Beast scholars had overlooked such an enormous discovery.
The technological gap.
Don't be fooled by how simple it seed when Jiang Xing tested talents, attributes, and moves.
That was entirely because he was using all kinds of devices and instrunts—borrowing the power of technology.
And those devices and instrunts hadn't existed from the very beginning either.
They had been gradually developed and researched bit by bit by the predecessors of the Beast Taming field.
Take the newly erging Friendship field, for example. It still lacked all those fancy machines. Just a single Friendship Detector already counted as "era-defining" technology.
Decades ago, when Pet Beast studies had only just begun, every scholar was feeling their way across the river by trial and error.
Without these devices, the only way they could understand Pet Beasts was through painstaking testing, combined with experience, speculation, and Beast Tar descriptions, before compiling the Compendium entries.
For example, when testing a move's attribute, they had no machine capable of displaying power values, nor could they possibly prepare dozens of differently attributed Pet Beasts just to take hits.
Most of the ti, they simply collected the extraordinary energy released when a Pet Beast used a skill and analyzed that energy.
Wood-type energy ant a Wood-type move.
Fire-type energy ant a Fire-type move.
And so on.
Because of that, a move like Return—which even modern scholars still did not fully understand due to its emotional power—naturally couldn't be properly analyzed.
So it was crudely categorized as an Attribute-less "standard move."
And the attribute represented by Return just so happened to have no effectiveness interactions whatsoever against common attributes like tal, Wood, Water, Fire, or Earth…
Without deliberately paying attention to it, it was extrely difficult to notice that it actually possessed effectiveness against a handful of specific attributes.
And so, it disappeared into the sea of countless other moves.
Even Jiang Xing himself had fallen victim to habitual assumptions, treating it like the "Return" from the neighboring world and assuming it was rely a normal ordinary move.
Even during his earlier power tests, he had never intentionally switched the Move Testing Machine's attributes.
If not for the Clouddown Bird, he probably would have had a hard ti uncovering the secret hidden within Return as well.
If soone used this alone to claim that the researchers from decades ago were unprofessional, that would rely be standing on the shoulders of giants while complaining the giants were too short.
Obviously, that would be unfair.
'So this is what they an by hiding in plain sight… I've truly seen it firsthand this ti.'
Jiang Xing took a deep breath and corrected his attitude once more.
No matter what the predecessors had done, and regardless of whether the unknown variable within the Clouddown Bird was truly a hidden attribute—he first needed to determine exactly what attribute the Return move belonged to.
For the sake of the predecessors, and for himself as well, he would correct this mistake.
He directed the Clouddown Bird and began a new round of testing.
As collision after collision of energy erupted—
The hidden attribute within the Return move gradually revealed its outline.
When attacking Dark, Evil, and Undead attributes, it dealt additional damage.
When attacking Light and Psychic attributes, its power was weakened.
Against every other attribute, nothing changed.
At this mont, the veil covering the mysterious attribute had been completely lifted before Jiang Xing—
These effectiveness interactions did not belong to any known Pet Beast attribute.
This was an entirely new attribute, buried beneath the dust of history and overlooked by humanity the entire ti!
"Jiang Xing!"
At that mont, Dr. Xu slowly made his way back as well.
He opened the testing room door and spoke curiously.
"You're still testing the unknown variable inside the Clouddown Bird? Earlier on the mountain, did you figure out wha—"
"I discovered a new attribute."
Jiang Xing interrupted him.
"Oh, so it's a new attribute…"
Dr. Xu nodded calmly, his expression unchanged, then turned around and walked away.
Very quickly, voices sounded from outside.
"Hello? Old Lin, how's the researcher certification for my student coming along?"
"You're holding the confernt ceremony together with the others next month?"
"It's fine, no need for that anymore. Just evaluate him directly for a Doctor title instead. If that's not possible, then I'll hand my position over to him."
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