Chapter 8

Thump, thump!

Xia Muqing’s heart was pounding wildly, almost jumping out of her chest.

What should she do? Where was the turning point?

She tried to communicate with the Swiftwind Dog through telepathy, but the man in black reacted faster, pressing close behind her and whispering ominously, “Put your mystical beast away. Don’t let me see any sign of it activating its skills, or I’ll shoot immediately!”

Xia Muqing: “…”

With no choice, she had to hide the Swiftwind Dog and, following the man’s instructions, slowly raised her hands and backed away.

One step, two steps… She was leaving the bus stop, getting closer and closer to the dark alley.

Sweat beads appeared on Xia Muqing’s temple. She clenched her teeth tightly, her face turning paler and paler.

What could she do? Was there any other way?

The only one who could defeat the man was the Swiftwind Dog, but right now it couldn’t enter the mystical beast space, and activating any other skills had some kind of pre-warning.

Unless it could make the man lose consciousness in an instant—that was the “Intimidation” skill the Swiftwind Dog had never been able to learn!

Xia Muqing desperately called out to the Swiftwind Dog in her heart.

Inside the mystical beast space, Xiao Feng was anxious, pacing in circles.

Its danger premonition was operating at full capacity. It knew how critical its master’s situation was. Intimidation, it needed intimidation, intimidation, intimidation—

Aaaah!

“Awwooo!!”

The Swiftwind Dog’s eyes gradually reddened.

Blood-like bright red, its fur bristled, and the red color slowly spread from the roots of the fur, seeping onto the skin’s surface.

Intimidation, intimidation!

It couldn’t live without Xia Muqing. It was the weakest, most useless Swiftwind Dog, but Xia Muqing had given it confidence to survive, constantly encouraging and nurturing it.

It had to save its master!

“Awwooo!!!”

Through telepathy, Xia Muqing’s mind stirred.

In an instant, the little Swiftwind Dog appeared in midair. Its entire body was stained blood-red, its eyes bloodshot and glowing fiercely.

Everything Professor Patterned Hawk  had taught it flashed through its mind. A powerful will to save its master swirled into a storm in its heart, carrying years of resentment and anger, pouring out!

Intimidation—activate!

Invisible spiritual ripples spread, instantly hitting the black-clothed man’s brain. With a buzzing sound, his vision suddenly went dark.

Xia Muqing took the opportunity to break free, spun around, and delivered a flying kick that knocked the gun out of the man’s hand!

“Xiao Feng, well done!”

“Awwooo!”

Catching the little Swiftwind Dog, Xia Muqing shouted for help and ran as fast as she could.

Subduing the man? Impossible—she knew her own strength.

Intimidation could only stun the man for a few seconds, and the Swiftwind Dog was bleeding all over, clearly drained from using Intimidation. It was her only mystical beast, but the man’s mystical beast hadn’t appeared yet.

Her choice was proven right. Just as she dashed out of the alley, the man had regained consciousness and angrily shouted as he chased after her.

The alley was dark, and the gun had flown somewhere unknown, so he didn’t bother to retrieve it.

Instead, he summoned his mystical beast: “Electric Fox!”

A fox wrapped in crackling purple lightning suddenly appeared. Xia Muqing’s heart tightened as she saw the fox open its mouth, gathering a curved bolt of lightning shimmering with electricity—

“Awwooo!!”

The little Swiftwind Dog raised its head, eyes blazing with rage!

Another Intimidation!

The Electric Fox’s attack was interrupted, and the man’s steps faltered for a moment. Xia Muqing seized the chance to rush toward the bus stop, just in time to see several uniformed officers running toward them.

The security team had finally arrived!

—

The black-clothed man, who had made Xia Muqing’s life hang by a thread, was quickly defeated in front of the fully armed police.

He was handcuffed and shoved into a police car. The Electric Fox was also subdued and fitted with a suppressor.

Weak and exhausted, Xia Muqing was taken to the security station, where staff poured her a cup of hot tea, spoke to her gently to comfort her, and asked about the man in black.

Xia Muqing told them everything truthfully, then asked, “What about my Swiftwind Dog? How is it?”

“Don’t worry, we’ve already had a doctor examine it,” the staff said. “It’s fine, just a bit weak…”

Here, the staff’s voice gradually lowered.

Mainly because she herself felt a bit uneasy saying it.

That Swiftwind Dog was bleeding all over, looking utterly miserable, probably damaged at its core. But the hospital couldn’t find anything wrong—after running all sorts of tests, they only concluded it was “weak,” which wasn’t very convincing.

However, Blue Star’s technology was only capable of this much, they simply couldn’t figure out what was really wrong with the little Swiftwind Dog.

According to the staff, this 17-year-old girl in front of them was still a student, about to take her subject subject division exams. Asking her to bring such a “severely injured” mystical beast to the exams was really unfair.

Moreover… the accident mainly happened due to the security department’s fault. While capturing a mystical beast smuggling gang, they accidentally let one member escape, which led to Xia Muqing’s crisis.

“We’re truly sorry,” the staff apologized sincerely, “For letting you face the criminal directly. It was our security department’s failure. We owe you an apology.”

Xia Muqing waved her hands repeatedly, “No, no, I should be the one thanking you. If you hadn’t arrived in time, I really wouldn’t have beaten that Electric Fox.”

Staff member: “Alright then, we’ll compensate you with a batch of medicine and nutritional supplies to help the Swiftwind Dog recover faster, okay?”

“And the Mystical Beast Tamer Association is willing to provide you with a Level 3 cultivation resource. When you have time, you can take this notice and claim it there.”

Xia Muqing was slightly stunned.

There was such a good thing?

—

The reason the security department was willing to coordinate with the Mystical Beast Tamer Association to offer a Level 3 cultivation resource was mainly because they couldn’t diagnose the little Swiftwind Dog’s illness.

Although it was only Level 3, the items on the association’s resource list were rare treasures brought back by adventurers from other dimensions. The staff thought that with this resource, even if Xia Muqing started cultivating a new mystical beast from scratch now, she could still achieve some results before the exams.

But for Xia Muqing, this was purely a pleasant surprise.

Others didn’t know why Xiao Feng was bleeding all over, but could she not understand?

That was a breakthrough beyond limits—an incredibly rare chance, apart from evolution, to increase its five core attributes!

At this moment, when Xia Muqing checked the mystical beast’s attributes again, Xiao Feng’s spirit attribute had already risen from 91 to 93, and its speed attribute went from 94 to 95, breaking through the 95 mark.

Over 90, every single point of increase was extremely difficult. Even with evolution boosting stats, Xia Muqing couldn’t guarantee that any of Xiao Feng’s five core attributes would surpass 100. But there was a hidden rule in the game—before first-stage evolution, if a mystical beast’s core attribute breaks 95, that attribute is guaranteed to surpass 100 after evolution.

In other words, Xiao Feng would inevitably become a divine beast in the future.

“Sure enough, danger and opportunity coexist in this world,” Xia Muqing murmured silently. “And Xiao Feng, thank goodness it burst out at the critical moment, or I’d be dead today.”

Thinking this, she grabbed the security officer’s arm again. “Miss, do you know where I can learn the professor’s mystical beast trainer combat skills?”

Real-world combat was very different from the game.

This crisis had truly been a wake-up call for Xia Muqing.

In the game, a Beast Tamer commands the mystical beast in battle and doesn’t get hurt themselves. But in real life, this isn’t some protected arena for Beast Tamers—everyone knows that to catch a thief, you must first catch the leader.

She not only needs to train Xiao Feng but also improve her own self-defense skills, so she won’t become a burden to Xiao Feng.

—

The little Swiftwind Dog was indeed just weak, so it recovered quickly and was able to continue skill training the next day.

After this crisis, it grew a lot, the base of its fur still had a faint reddish tint, and its gaze was no longer evasive but much more determined.

Xia Muqing invited Senior Wen one last time to watch little Swiftwind Dog use “Intimidation” in front of her.

“Awooo!”

An invisible wave of energy surged and spread, echoing loudly throughout the area.

Senior Wen was very surprised: “So strong! If my Patterned Hawk hadn’t been prepared in advance, it probably would have been stunned by it for a second!”

“It has already mastered this skill preliminarily. Looks like I’m going to be out of a job.”

Xia Muqing smiled brightly, “Thanks to Senior Wen for dedicating so much effort to teaching us.”

Senior Wen waved her hand, “I’m just doing my job for pay, it’s your Swiftwind Dog’s talent that’s good. To be honest, I can’t even tell how far it will grow.”

“You want to become an adventurer, right? When you apply, consider Dongjiang University (East River University), okay? I’ll have your back then.”

“Do you want to learn any other skills? If you do, just call me anytime. I’ll give you a 30% discount!”

After saying goodbye to Senior Wen, Xia Muqing took little Swiftwind Dog and headed to the Beast Tamer Association.

The subject division exams were coming soon, so she needed to get the Level 3 resources as soon as possible and help Xiao Feng digest them quickly.

The Beast Tamer Association had a separate office building in S City, with more than twenty floors—very impressive.

After showing the instruction letter, staff led her to a conference room and handed her a long list.

“These are the Level 3 resources stored in the inventory. Please choose one from here.”

Xia Muqing looked at the list and… “slurp.”

She almost drooled.

So many good things! Stamina potions, skill duplication stones, mystical beast eggs, Tianying flowers… how was she supposed to choose without getting confused?

Suppressing her excitement, Xia Muqing carefully read the entire list from start to finish.

When her eyes landed on one item, she was slightly stunned: “Huh?”

This thing called the ‘Spirit Nourishing Stone’ looked somewhat familiar…