Chapter 67

The two of them chatted as they walked and soon found the delicious ice cream shop Wen Li had mentioned.

It was a chain of ice cream stores under the Bombardment White Cow Ranch, popular throughout the entire Diyan region, especially for their signature vanilla ice cream.

The ingredients were made from the highly praised Bombardment White Cow Milk, along with the fruit of the extraordinary creature Seeking Vanilla. Not only was it a delicious treat, but it also helped to relieve fatigue and restore energy. It was loved by both beast masters and their pets.

Mu Huiyue’s two pets were also regulars of Bombardment White Cow Milk—Ellen during his little skeleton phase and Bai Ya, when he had just arrived at home, both had it as their main food.

Since Wen Li offered to treat her, she ordered five cups of vanilla ice cream.

Two of the cups were for herself and Ah Miao, and the rest were all for Mu Huiyue.

Mu Huiyue summoned Bai Ya from the beast space. The little dog wagged its tail excitedly in her arms, paws on the edge of the table, happily licking a mouthful of vanilla ice cream on the table and letting out a joyful bark.

Bai Ya’s current diet mainly consists of meat, but it still enjoys the taste of Bombardment White Cow Milk from its younger days.

“Does Ellen want ice cream?” Mu Huiyue asked her shadow.

The shadow beneath her feet rippled, and soon a strand of black shadow rose up, wrapped around a cup of ice cream on the table, and slowly drew it back into the shadow.

Mu Huiyue smiled faintly and lifted her gaze. She saw Wen Li sitting across from her, leaning against Yanxi Miao, sharing the ice cream, one hand holding the phone to take a selfie.

The arena where they had been watching the match earlier didn’t allow pets larger than a certain size, so Yanxi Miao had to stay in the beast space. Now, it was finally able to snuggle with its beast master.

Wen Li had carefully edited the photo she had just taken, adding many stickers themed around Yanxi Miao.

She was about to take a similar photo with Mu Huiyue, holding up her phone and stretching her head over, when she suddenly froze.

“What’s wrong?” Mu Huiyue looked at her in confusion.

Wen Li looked like she had just seen some shocking news, her face pale as she helplessly clutched her phone, her voice trembling.

“Ahhhh, I totally forgot! Today is the day the results for the beast master written exam are released!”

While editing the photo, Wen Li’s phone popped up with the latest news: the notification for the written exam results.

“What should I do, what should I do… What if I didn’t pass the cutoff?”

Wen Li held her phone in her hands as if it were some kind of offering, hesitating for a long time before daring to open the detailed results notification. She muttered anxiously to herself.

Mu Huiyue paused for a moment upon hearing this. After the written exam, she had been busy preparing for the national ranking matches, and once they arrived in the capital, so much had happened that she completely forgot about the exam results.

Mu Huiyue opened the app on her phone to check the score, then glanced over at Wen Li, who was still holding the phone, trying to deceive herself. She couldn’t help but laugh.

“Even if you don’t look, the score is out now, Wen Li,” Mu Huiyue said gently, “Avoidance won’t change reality.”

“Meow-wow…” Yanxi Miao nudged Wen Li, as if encouraging its beast master.

Wen Li, of course, understood this. After gathering her courage, she cautiously opened the Beast Master Association’s app, her posture like someone waiting for the lottery numbers to be drawn.

“Meow-wow!” Yanxi Miao, seeing how slow its Beast Master was moving, grew anxious and swiped the page to the results screen.

Wen Li: “…!!!”

Written exam accuracy: 69.8%, exceeding over 60% of the students who took the exam in Jingzhou region. She passed!

“That’s great, A Miao!” Wen Li was on the verge of tears from joy and hugged Yanxi Miao tightly.

In Beast Mastery practical battles, Wen Li was an excellent Beast Master who could make it into the top ten of the national ranking tournament. As long as she passed the written exam, she could theoretically enter the combat department of any Beast Master university.

Right now, she was technically still in the stage of running away from home. After rejecting the contract with the Emberfire Sparrow, she had joined the Beast Master certification exam with Yanxi Miao.

If she failed to get into her desired university’s combat department, Wen Li would have no choice but to accept her family’s mission and contract with the Emberfire Sparrow, walking the path of a Beast Performance Artist.

Luckily, A Miao lived up to expectations, and the written exam results didn’t disappoint her efforts.

Wen Li smiled in relief, giving herself a thumbs-up as she held the phone displaying her results.

She saw that Mu Huiyue had also opened the same page and curiously leaned over to take a look.

Then she almost got blinded by the golden, sparkling 99.6% on the screen.

Mu Huiyue’s written exam accuracy… was how much?!

A 99.6% score—was that even possible for a human?!

Thinking about it carefully, that might truly be the highest score achievable by a human, considering the existence of written answer questions. To get a perfect 100% correct answer on everything, probably only the system responsible for grading would manage that.

Mu Huiyue’s score surpassed all the candidates in the Xingzhou region, making her the undisputed first place in the area.

As expected, she calmly closed the results page and looked at the slightly dazed Wen Li.

“Wen Li, which university are you planning to go to?”

Wen Li was still in a state of being overshadowed by the brilliance of the academic prodigy. Although she knew that Mu Huiyue would easily pass the line, 99.6%… could someone really answer those obscure, centuries-old beast-taming questions?!

It wasn’t until she was asked about her university choice that she suddenly snapped back to reality.

“Of course, it’s the Battle Department of Jingzhou University!” Wen Li said excitedly, her eyes sparkling. “It’s the school where Su Luo, the Beastmaster, studied, and it’s my only goal!”

“In that case…” Mu Huiyue smiled. “We’ll be alumni together, Wen Li.”

After considering various factors, Mu Huiyue had finally decided to choose Jingzhou University as well.

The capital offered abundant resources in all aspects, and Jingzhou University had considerable resource allocation, along with the best dark magic research institute in the entire Dayan. While it wasn’t exactly close to Xingzhou, the headquarters of the Bureau of Affairs was also located here.

She was genuinely happy to unexpectedly attend the same school as Wen Li.

“Really?!” Wen Li was also thrilled. The little bit of nervousness she had earlier was long gone as she pulled Mu Huiyue into a conversation about their upcoming university life over the next few years.

After finishing the ice cream, the two of them went to the busiest commercial district in Jingjiang City.

The commercial world here still resembled what Mu Huiyue was familiar with, but now there were many more factors involving extraordinary creatures.

The human-made products were a dazzling array, and there was no shortage of items for extraordinary creatures either, ranging from food, clothing, and accessories, to everything one could imagine.

There were various purely decorative ornaments, beauty salons and massage parlors catering to different kinds of creatures, and a range of enhancement items crafted from extraordinary resources. There were even popular pet eggs directly for sale.

Mu Huiyue bought decorative charms for the little cloud dog and little skeleton, hanging them beautifully on her bag strap.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t find any themed around the “牌牙兵” (plaque warrior), though the Q-version of the little skeleton was still cute… It was understandable that the adult skeleton, which was neither powerful nor cute, had lower popularity among the public.

But it didn’t matter; her Ellen was undoubtedly the most handsome and powerful plaque warrior.

Wen Li also bought charms themed around the “Flame Tail Cat” and “Flame Strike Cat,” both popular among fire-type pets.

The most popular themed merchandise, as expected, was related to various fantasy and mythical extraordinary creatures, especially products related to the Sun God Phoenix.

The two of them casually strolled through the commercial district and arrived at the largest department store. The giant holographic projection screen at the entrance was displaying an advertisement endorsed by the popular idol Wen Qing.

The beautiful young girl danced gracefully, and behind her was a massive fiery phoenix with wings spread wide, its burning feathers fluttering down and blooming into dazzling sparks.

That was a high-ranking fire-type monarch species, the Flying Fire Phoenix, the evolved form of the Ember Phoenix. Further evolution would lead to the high-ranking imperial species, the Crimson Flame Bird, which shared a deep connection with the Sun God Phoenix.

Mu Huiyue glanced at her friend beside her. She remembered that Wenqing was Wen Li’s cousin, right?

But she saw Wen Li gazing at the older sister in the massive advertisement with a deeply moved expression, her eyes devout and her hands unconsciously clasped together.

If she had a set of light sticks, it seemed like she would start cheering right there.

“Are you also a fan of your sister?” Mu Huiyue teased with a smile.

“Yes, I will always be a loyal fan of Qingjie!” Wen Li smiled too. “She’s the only one in the family who supports me in my battle and in doing what I want to do.”

“Qingjie also chose a path of rebellion. When she first took Ember Phoenix and wanted to debut as an idol, she really shocked the family,” Wen Li continued with a nostalgic look in her eyes. “She told me that the legacy of the Witch Priest family doesn’t have to remain unchanging.”

“People in every era have their own vision. They may not believe in the beautiful puppets on the stage, but the figure of someone relentlessly pursuing their goals can always inspire others in similar situations, no matter when.”

Wen Li clenched her fist. “So, the heir of the Witch Priest family should release their fire and chase after the dreams in their heart. That’s when the fire is at its brightest and most beautiful, under the protection of the Sun God Phoenix.”

Mu Huiyue nodded. Wenqing’s approach indeed aligned more with modern thinking.

In an era of rapid technological advancement, it was hard for the younger generation to view mythical species and extraordinary beings as all-powerful gods, as people did in the past, and thus, faith and worship were no longer as prevalent.

However, a popular idol with a Flying Fire Phoenix could easily boost the public’s fondness for the Crimson Flame Bird lineage.

The Sun God Phoenix might not become a deity in people’s hearts, but it would always accompany the Crimson Flame Bird and the Witch Priest family, remaining a spiritual and cultural symbol of Da Yan.

In fact, Wenqing had already succeeded. Her live ticket sales even once surpassed the legendary performances of the famous beast-tamer, Wen Lin.

“By the way, Shengyue, would you like to come over to my place today?” Wen Li asked.

Seeing the questioning look Mu Huiyue gave her, she waved her hand. “Of course not to Phoenix Mountain… I can’t go back there right now. Strictly speaking, I’m kind of in the middle of running away from home.”

“Thanks to Sister Qing for taking me in… Her schedule is really busy, so she let me stay in the apartment here in Jingjiang.”

Wen Li finished speaking and glanced at Mu Huiyue, feeling a bit embarrassed as she scratched her cheek. “My family was strict before, and Phoenix Mountain isn’t a place you can easily visit. This is the first time I’ve invited a friend to my house…”

“Yeah, sounds good.” Mu Huiyue nodded.

It wasn’t just Wen Li; this was also her first time visiting a friend’s house.

Wen Li, receiving an immediate affirmative response, was so happy that her eyes sparkled. She wrapped her arm around Mu Huiyue’s.

“How about we go to my house for hotpot for dinner? We can shop around the department store, and on the way back, we can buy some ingredients…”

As Wen Li planned, she pulled Mu Huiyue into the department store with her.