Chapter 6

Facing the fierce glare of the Azure Nether Serpent, Xia Muqing frowned.

Xu Ling grabbed her quickly: “Don’t fight! The exam is coming soon. If your Xiao Feng gets injured and needs ten or fifteen days of recovery, how will you take the exam?”

Although Xu Ling spoke bluntly, she was definitely not stupid.

She could tell at a glance what kind of intentions Liu Pan had.

Xia Muqing patted her friend’s hand: “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”

She looked at Liu Pan: “No need to provoke me. I’m not going to fight you. Your Azure Nether Serpent is still just a youngling. If my Xiao Feng kills it instantly, I’m afraid you won’t be able to handle it.”

“…” Liu Pan laughed angrily, “What a joke. You think you can hurt me?”

“If you don’t want to fight now, fine. We’ll have a match after the exam!”

Xia Muqing: “No problem. Just don’t back out after you see how I perform in the exam.”

Liu Pan: “Heh. Do you know how much I spent on my Azure Nether Serpent? 300,000. Your useless dog isn’t even worth a fraction of that—”

Xia Muqing: “Wait, you said how much?”

“Three hundred thousand…” Liu Pan paused, raising his eyebrows proudly, “Never seen that much money in your life, huh?”

Xia Muqing: “… snort!“

She grabbed Xu Ling’s hand and whispered, “Last time you said you didn’t buy the Azure Nether Serpent and saved 30,000, so you negotiated 230,000 with the seller, right?”

Xu Ling suppressed a laugh and lowered her voice: “Yeah, bargained for a long time. The seller’s expected price was probably around 250,000. Didn’t expect to meet someone foolish with too much money…”

Both burst out laughing.

Their voices were low, so Liu Pan didn’t hear but looked at them confused: “What are you laughing at? What’s so funny?”

Xia Muqing: “Nothing. Just thinking you’re a big genius.”

Liu Pan: “…”

He thought she was being sarcastic and his face darkened.

Fortunately, at this moment, Teacher Li, with large dark circles under his eyes, finally arrived and broke the tense atmosphere in the classroom.

“Everyone, quiet down… I’ve looked over all your cultivation plans. There are still quite a few problems. Later, I’ll have the class leader call you one by one to my office, and I’ll go over them with you.”

—

“Xia Muqing?”

Xia Muqing raised her hand: “Here!”

She stood up from her seat and walked toward the office with her plan in hand.

By this time, there were only a few people left in the classroom. Teacher Li judged that she was a tough nut to crack, so he deliberately saved her for last to give extra attention.

As soon as Teacher Li saw Xia Muqing in the office, he was furious.

That night, after reviewing the plan, he had gotten so angry at home that he yelled, accidentally waking up his sleeping child, then got scolded harshly by his wife—just thinking about it still made him feel a bit wronged.

“Take a good look—what exactly did you write here?”

Teacher Li jabbed his pen hard on the printed plan, which was already covered in blue and red markings—mostly red, as Xia Muqing glanced over it and saw countless “×” marks that made her scalp tingle.

Xia Muqing felt a bit embarrassed: “Uh… Teacher Li, my little Swiftwind Dog is different from an ordinary little Swiftwind Dog. The usual training methods don’t really suit it.”

Teacher Li exclaimed in despair: “Why don’t they suit it? These are the best training methods researched and summarized by experts and scholars over many years. Following them can’t be wrong!”

“I know. Nowadays, kids just want to be special and different. But finding a new path isn’t that easy.”

“If others couldn’t discover it after ten-plus years of research, do you just casually find it? Are you cheating or something?”

Xia Muqing: “…?”

How do you know I’m cheating?

Of course, she thought about it but couldn’t reveal the truth to Teacher Li.

She could only pull out the excuse she had prepared beforehand: “Actually, teacher, it’s like this—last week when I was cleaning the attic at my old home, I accidentally found a fragment of an ancient book…”

Teacher Li slammed the table: “Beasts have only been around for 30 years. Where would an ancient book come from?”

Xia Muqing: “Uh, maybe from ancient times…”

Teacher Li: “Stop fooling around. Do you think I never read online novels?”

Xia Muqing: “…”

She felt helpless. This wasn’t going anywhere.

Blue Star still hasn’t developed instruments to check the five-dimensional attributes of beast companions. They can only classify beasts roughly through experimental research, but this classification training method is very rigid.

For example, little Swiftwind Dogs are mostly known for speed and attack, so everyone trains them that way, but Xiao Feng is a special case excelling in both speed and spirit. Training it by the book wastes its talent.

Xia Muqing could only say, “Teacher, I know what my beast companion is good at, and so does it. It’s different from ordinary little Swiftwind Dogs—it has its own ideas and insists on this path. I can’t just force it to change its mind.”

Plan B: Blame everything on the little Swiftwind Dog!

Teacher Li hadn’t signed a contract with Xiao Feng, and he wasn’t even a Level 10 Dog Language expert—how could he possibly expose her?

The little Swiftwind Dog, unfairly blamed, looked confused: “…?”

Master, are you being polite?

But Xia Muqing’s explanation really left Teacher Li baffled.

In all his years of teaching, he had never seen a beast companion set up its own training plan.

Teacher Li stared at Xia Muqing for a long time, thinking, You’re a terrible owner—not even having the say in how to train your beast?

But how could things go on like this?

“‘Wind Vortex’ is one thing, but how can it learn ‘Cloudfall’ and ‘Strong Wind’? Those are skills only spirit-type beasts can learn. Isn’t it a waste of time training it in those?”

Xia Muqing whispered, “But Teacher, it has already learned ‘Cloudfall.’“

Teacher Li said, “Don’t interrupt, listen to me. I mean it would be better to spend its time—wait, what did you just say?”

“It’s learned ‘Cloudfall‘???”

—

Teacher Li’s sudden loud shout almost shattered the office window.

“Impossible! Absolutely impossible,” he said. “Call it out and show me a demonstration!”

Xia Muqing shrugged.

The office wasn’t a place for demonstrations, so she waited outside for a while until Teacher Li finished his work, then went with him to the training grounds the school had prepared for the Beast Taming Department.

Xia Muqing summoned the little Swiftwind Dog.

“Xiao Feng, use Cloudfall!”

The little Swiftwind Dog moved quickly across the field, then dove down. Its body was enveloped in pale blue spirit energy, transforming into a thick white mist.

At the same time, a faint white fog spread throughout the training area, as if frost was condensing.

Teacher Li watched, stunned.

Good heavens, it really was Cloudfall!

Although still in its early form, it had indeed learned the skill. As long as Xia Muqing kept training Xiao Feng hard, one day it would master the complete Cloudfall.

This was an area attack skill with the added effect of hiding its form, combined with the little Swiftwind Dog’s top-tier speed—it was incredibly powerful!

“You… this…”

Teacher Li was at a loss for words for a moment, his tongue tied in knots.

Actually, over the years, news sometimes reported cases of a mystical beast learning skills outside its own type, but those were extremely rare. Teacher Li never imagined such a thing would happen to one of his students’ beasts.

Was this a good thing?

If the little Swiftwind Dog kept heading in this direction, could it really open a new evolutionary path, or would it just get distracted and end up achieving nothing?

Teacher Li’s mind was in a complete mess.

No one could say for sure—not him, nor any other Beast Taming teacher anywhere in the world. He had no way to give proper guidance, and this realization made him a little sad, he had never encountered such a helpless situation before.

After all, in his heart, failing to give students sufficient and effective guidance was a teacher’s failure.

Teacher Li took off his glasses and vigorously wiped them with the corner of his sleeve.

“I… To be honest, I don’t know how to teach you this,” he muttered. “If you’re determined to train it this way, I can’t really offer advice. I’ll have to check the database again and find some reference materials for you.”

Xia Muqing said sincerely, “Thank you, Teacher Li.”

Although she didn’t really need the teacher’s guidance on training methods, she was still touched by his responsible attitude.

Teacher Li thought for a moment and added, “One more thing I need to warn you about.”

He tapped the control panel of the training ground. “Display Simulation Beast No. 8.”

As soon as he spoke, a projection of a giant stone monster appeared in the field.

It was a tall creature made entirely of rocks. As soon as it landed, it crouched down and curled up, turning itself into a hard, solid boulder glowing with a gray light.

“The skill ‘Harden’ greatly increases its defense,” Teacher Li explained. “You should be aware that some mystical beasts have naturally strong defenses. If your little Swiftwind Dog’s attack power isn’t enough, it will be difficult to break through these kinds of beasts’ defenses.”

“I suggest you have it learn a skill that breaks weaknesses or a kind of mental suppression skill.”

Xia Muqing’s eyes widened.

Although Teacher Li didn’t understand her training approach, just one demonstration of Xiao Feng was enough for him to accurately identify its current weaknesses.

Truly an experienced teacher with sharp insight.

“I understand now, thank you, Teacher!”

—

What Teacher Li said was actually exactly what Xia Muqing had been thinking about.

Earlier that day, seeing Liu Pan with his Azure Nether Serpent had already sparked this idea.

Because the Azure Nether Serpent’s mental attributes are usually strong, Liu Pan would likely have it learn a mental attack skill in addition to its bloodthirsty and frenzied abilities.

Plus, his family was wealthy, so he could afford to spend money to quickly unlock these basic skills.

As for the exact skills—

Xia Muqing flipped through the mental catalog in her mind: “Most likely ‘Bloody Intimidation’ or ‘Killing Aura Shock.’“

Both of these skills greatly intimidate opponents, forcing them to retreat.

In fact, these are the skills Xiao Feng fears the most. Although it has high mental attributes, it’s timid and easily scared by the Azure Nether Serpent’s ferocity.

“So, I have to prioritize teaching it a mental deterrent skill to improve its mental resistance.”

However, mental skills are much harder to grasp on one’s own, unlike ‘Wind Vortex’ or ‘Cloudfall.’ It’s best if there’s a ‘teacher’ to instruct it.

Rubbing Xiao Feng’s soft fur, Xia Muqing looked at her bank balance on her phone and sighed helplessly.

“Xiao Feng, tomorrow we’re going to the training ground. I’m hiring you a private tutor.”