This is the age of Beast Tamers, and the age when all spirits awaken.
Plants and trees have spirits, and mountains and rivers have souls.
Insects, fish, birds, and beasts can shed their mortal bloodlines; elemental spirits can command the weather; intelligent machines can awaken their minds; and ancient species emerge from slumber.
In this world, history is no longer just words on a page:
The First Emperor's chariot passes through Hangu Pass, while an ancient dragon of the Great Wall coils at the edge of the mountains;
Alexander's banners cross the wasteland, with a golden-maned war lion clearing the dust before him;
On the night a pharaoh's pyramid is completed, a holy scarab of the underworld lifts the first ray of the blazing sun;
Viking longships sail into the frozen sea, guided through the storms by frost-feathered ravens.
Li Li transmigrated back to his senior year of high school.
His teachers, classmates, and parents, even the dog-eared workbooks on his bedroom desk, were all just as he remembered them.
But the knowledge he'd learned back then had long since been returned to his teachers, and with only half a year left before the college entrance exams, it looked like a start that would make anyone's vision go dark.
Then the homeroom teacher tapped the blackboard and announced that the first round of beast potential assessments would take place the following week.
Li Li: "...Wait, the college entrance exams in this world don't test math, physics, or chemistry?"
In that case, never mind.
A puppet automaton at the podium was handing out exam papers. A windbell kite swooped between buildings near the courier station, and the Verdant Dew Butterfly his mother kept on the balcony was watering the flowers and plants.
Li Li finally realized he'd returned not to the past, but to another age rewritten by spirit beasts.
Worse still, he had only half a year until the Beast Tamer college entrance exams.
He looked at the densely packed chapters in his textbooks on spirit beast lineages, contract theory, elemental advantages, and evolution paths... He briefly contemplated life and decided that lying flat might not be so bad.
Until the pendant that had transmigrated with him finally revealed its true power:
A spirit beast's evolution didn't rely on bloodline alone.
Ancient relics, forgotten legends, and lost ruins could all become keys to helping them complete themselves.
The overlooked pearl bird might trace its origins to the messenger Azure Bird, the peacock spreading its tail, and the roc soaring skyward, eventually becoming a phoenix that flew through the highest heavens.
A small flying lizard with an ordinary bloodline might also bear a king's ancient sword and a dragon's oath, transforming into a legendary dragon.
Other Beast Tamers: "You call that an ordinary spirit beast?"
Li Li calmly stroked the chubby bird on his shoulder. Keep a low profile. I'm just an unremarkable history buff.
His first goal: become the top scorer in the college entrance exams!
(My own take on Beast Taming. The protagonist has a cheat, but his bonds with his spirit beasts are built from the very start. Their evolution forms are numerous and take a long time, with the Bond Phenomenon occurring in certain situations.)
(While writing this, I'll be drawing on various pet games, including but not limited to Pokemon and Digimon... If anything seems familiar, it's probably an homage!)
(I'll most likely start this one next. The pets each represent a particular culture, and it's going to be a very long story, but I probably won't finish it until next year, after I finish the previous one, haha.)
Theme: Protect the Earth and cherish life
