"What does picking a guardian mean though?"
Lin Mu was intrigued by what the Saintess meant by picking a guardian and thus asked for clarification.
"If you are the winner or sometimes even in the top three, one of the rewards you can pick is to gain something from the guardians. Of course, there are restrictions between the different levels of rewards, but the winner has the most options.
If you do become the first winner, you can choose to pick one of the Guardian beasts as your guide or obtain a reward from them personally." The Saintess explained.
Hearing this Lin Mu's eyes went wide. After all, meeting a guardian face to face was something on a different level. Even if he had met the Saintess and had Xukong who was above the status of these guardians, the reach of the Temple of the Four Guardians was still great.
It would only be of benefit to him if he could talk to them.
"What kind of rewards would be the best to ask of them, Saintess?" Lin Mu directly questioned.
While he didn't know if he would really be the winner in the end, it was still good to have an idea about his choices. And who else to ask better than the Saintess herself?
"The top reward that you can get is… The bloodline of the Guardians." The Saintess revealed.
"WHAT!?" Lin Mu couldn't believe it. "You can actually ask for their bloodline!"
"Not always… But if they are impressed with you, they might be willing." The Saintess replied. "Of course, it won't be a concentrated bloodline. It will be highly diluted, but enough to allow you its benefits."
Hearing this, Lin Mu felt tempted. But then, he also knew he was not in the position to assimilate another bloodline.
~Sigh~
"It is not a reward that'll help me, though." Lin Mu shook his head.
"Indeed. The bloodlines of the four guardians are not something that'll be compatible with your Great Slumber bear bloodline." The Saintess agreed before speaking again. "But there are other things you can still obtain that might as well be of the same value as their bloodlines"
"Oh? And what might that be?" Lin Mu asked.
"The signature techniques and skills of the Guardians beasts. Their clans have a long history and similar have made many techniques and skills over the course of their existence. Any of these skills and techniques are prized and cannot be obtained easily.
Even if one obtains a manual for them, learning them is almost impossible without the guidance of the Guardians themselves. While there are some techniques that can only be imparted directly and cannot be learned.
Each guardian clan has different techniques and they are specialized in different ones too." The Saintess answered in detail.
Lin Mu was now starting to see the benefit. He realized that having a technique from one of the guardians would be really useful if he could do so.
"Hmm, that does seem good. But what are the different guardians specialized in?" Lin Mu asked next.
"You already know of the elements that the guardian beasts belong to, right?" The Saintess inquired.
"I do, yes. The Azure Dragon is of the wood element, the Vermillion bird is of the fire element, the White Tiger is of the metal element, and the Black Tortoise is of the Water element." Lin Mu listed them out.
"Correct. But these are just the elements and other than these, they have their own advantages. For example, the White Tiger is one that specializes in pure physical power while the Vermillion bird specializes in Qi skills of various abilities." The Saintess replied.
"What about the Azure Dragon and the Black Tortoise?" Lin Mu questioned.
"The Azure Dragon clan is often said to be the strongest out of all the guardian clans. While this varies from member to member, they do hold a lot of influence in the four clans. Their skills are varied too, but mainly they have strong offense and speed along with Qi skills to match.
As for the Black Tortoise clan, it is straight and simple… Absolute Defense!"
Lin Mu's eyes lit up as he heard this. If there was anything that he was staunch about it was defense. He knew if no one could harm him, he would have a better chance at survival. Even if someone was faster than him and did a sneak attack, his strong defense could save him and allow him time to react.
While the power of the other guardian beasts tempted him, he still felt inclined towards the Black Tortoise.
The Azure Dragon clan was that of Dragons and as such, their powers held great prestige. After all, dragons were always seen as one of the top beings in existence, even if there were many kinds of them, with some being weaker and some stronger.
'If I didn't have a bloodline, I might have opted for the Azure Dragon, but since that is not an option, it is better to progress in what I already specialize in…' Lin Mu thought to himself.
The Saintess could somewhat guess what Lin Mu might choose, but she decided to let him keep it to himself for now. After all, there was no saying if he would change his mind depending on the course of the tournament.
'Or when he's facing the guardians, they might convince him to do something else as well.' The Saintess thought to herself.
"Well… Let's have some food, shall we? It's been a while." Lin Mu suddenly said, changing the mood.
"Yes! I'll have some dishes ready, and will make some more!" Little Shrubby was always excited about it.
~HISS~
The twins had also become habituated to Little Shrubby's cooking and were looking towards it.
The Saintess was up for it as well and watched as the master and beast cooked their meal. Soon enough, they all were eating their dinner and enjoying it. The Tournament was close and it would be their last meal like this for a while.
