Seeing that the archive was covered in dust, looking as if no one had entered in a long time, Shi Gui Fang’s expression instantly soured.
She had already given instructions for someone to come and clean it, but unexpectedly, her subordinates hadn’t taken her orders seriously.
This irritated her, but of course, someone with her high emotional intelligence would never let her feelings show on her face. So on the surface, she remained perfectly calm.
She explained to Li Qian, a little embarrassed, "Um, our Cultivation Base has actually started establishing a new cloud database, but it’s going to take some time."
To make up for the bad impression, she continued without pausing, "Once the new cloud database is set up, all this paper data will be scanned into it."
Finally, she added, "And I’ve personally brought some of my own research data, which will be added in as well."
Li Qian’s attention was already captivated by the numerous paper documents in the archive.
He paid little attention to Shi Gui Fang’s explanation, simply giving a faint "Mm."
With that, he fell silent and picked up a stack of documents to look through.
It was a stack of data printed on standard A4 paper, containing research on the breeding of Yellow-tailed Sparrows.
Li Qian knew that many Cultivation Bases didn’t actually get involved in evolution research.
Breeders like him, who focused primarily on Pet Beast evolution research, and Cultivation Bases like Jiaoyang Cultivation Base, which specialized in studying Pet Beast evolution methods, were actually quite rare.
Most Cultivation Bases primarily engaged in foundational research on Pet Beasts.
For example, the feeding, breeding, and Skills training of Pet Beasts, as well as Pet Beast food, Pet Beast Potions, and so on.
This kind of research required less investment, yielded quick results, and easily generated economic value, making it more popular with small and medium-sized Cultivation Bases.
As for high-difficulty research like Pet Beast evolution, mutation, or even pushing a Pet Beast’s Potential past its limits to become a Limit Breaker—these were a different story. While success in these areas would yield immeasurable influence and economic value, such research often required massive investments of capital and manpower. It could easily end in a futile effort, with nothing to show for it. Therefore, small Cultivation Bases rarely pursued this line of study.
Before Gao Yaxin took over, wasn’t the original owner of Changfeng Cultivation Base a perfect example of this? He poured most of his resources into the evolution of the Red Feather Chicken and ended up so deep in the red that he had to sell the base.
As for Gao Yaxin and her team, if they continued on their current path, even with their family’s wealth, they wouldn’t be able to sustain it.
After briefly flipping through a few pages, Li Qian noticed Shi Gui Fang was still standing there awkwardly. He asked, a little puzzled, "Boss Shi, is there something else?"
"Huh?" Shi Gui Fang was taken aback for a moment. First, she was surprised by his form of address. While not incorrect, it sounded rather unpleasant. Second, she didn’t quite understand what he meant by his question.
Seeing that Shi Gui Fang was a bit confused, Li Qian said directly, "If there’s nothing else, you can go draw up the contract."
"Er, okay..." Shi Gui Fang replied instinctively. But once his words fully registered, she immediately asked, "Um, you don’t want to negotiate more?"
"Negotiate?" Li Qian gave a faint smile and spread his hands. "Negotiate what? I think the terms you offered are quite good. I’m very satisfied."
Then, he added with a hint of amusement in his voice, "Or perhaps... you’re not satisfied with me?"
Hearing this, Shi Gui Fang quickly waved her hands in denial. "No, of course not. I’ll go draw up the contract right away."
As soon as she finished speaking, the charming woman left the archive with a cheerful spring in her step.
’It’s just a Cultivation Base on the verge of bankruptcy anyway,’ she thought. ’Even if there is some valuable research data inside, it can’t be *that* valuable.’
’Besides, if I’m going to recruit Li Qian, it’s only right to give up a little something.’
As for whether Li Qian could actually achieve any breakthroughs using this research data, the thought never even crossed her mind.
She didn’t even care if Li Qian could produce any results in the next month or so.
All she was doing was making a grand gesture to attract talent.
With Shi Gui Fang gone and no one to disturb him, Li Qian browsed more freely. ’Even though it’s all on paper, the categorization is quite meticulous. It looks like the old gentleman who managed this archive put a lot of thought into it.’
After muttering to himself, he stopped flipping through the documents and instead began to scan them quickly.
As he scanned, he discovered something interesting. ’So much research data on Flying Pet Beasts. It seems the previous Langela Cultivation Base also specialized in researching them. No wonder Shi Gui Fang renamed it Sky Realm.’
As Li Qian thought this, he acknowledged that this was, in fact, a very important reason why he had chosen the Sky Realm Cultivation Base.
"Gray Bean Dove—Storm Eagle—Lie Kongzuo Research Data!" As he browsed casually, a striking line of text soon appeared in his line of sight.
When he saw "Gray Bean Dove—Storm Eagle," his expression was still normal. But when he saw "Storm Eagle—Lie Kongzuo," his jaw nearly hit the floor.
His first reaction was... ’Impossible, absolutely impossible!’
’How could an evolution method for Lie Kongzuo possibly be here? Lie Kongzuo is a Saint Spirit Level Pet Beast!’
’Its Level is higher than a Sky Escape Eagle—much higher.’ So, seeing such a label on the shelf, Li Qian’s immediate reaction was disbelief.
Complete and utter disbelief!
Without hesitation, he walked straight over, picked up that stack of documents, and began reading with rapt attention.
After reading for only a moment, his brow furrowed. Finally, he couldn’t help but let out a wry laugh. ’Damn, it’s just some speculation. Got my hopes up for nothing. But I guess that’s to be expected. It would be abnormal to find such precious research data in a small Cultivation Base like this!’
Li Qian gave it a cursory look. The evolution method described in the document, from Gray Bean Dove to Storm Eagle, was more or less fine. There wasn’t much difference from what he already knew.
However, the evolution method from Storm Eagle to Lie Kongzuo was pure nonsense.
It was utterly baseless—pure conjecture.
There was no evidence to back it up; it was almost entirely fantasy.
Li Qian was very disappointed and put the documents down. But just then, a notification sound suddenly rang out.
[+3 Inspiration Value. Current task progress: 99%!]
’What’s this?’ Hearing the notification in his mind, Li Qian’s thoughts couldn’t quite keep up.
’What’s going on? Wasn’t that just a bunch of nonsense? Why did I get Inspiration Value?’
’Could it be that the nonsense in this document actually managed to get something right?’