Chapter 106: Chapter 97: Deep Sea Assault

In the aroma of hotpot, Chen Xing and Yue Qianyuan sat inside a private room.

As Yue Qianyuan enjoyed the spicy flavors, he skillfully threaded meat onto skewers in the oil dish, savoring every bite with a face full of contentment.

His mouth was greasy with oil, but he was thoroughly enjoying himself.

“Before, I couldn’t find a match among my peers, but this time I really had my eyes opened,” Yue Qianyuan gave Chen Xing a thumbs up in admiration. “Your Beast Taming Skills are really impressive.”

Chen Xing took a sip of tea and casually asked, “So Yue, do you always come first in your grade on the monthly exams?”

“Of course, I’ve got to keep up appearances,” Yue Qianyuan answered nonchalantly. “If I weren’t the first, I wouldn’t have been brought here by the teacher, right?”

“Your school won the High School Cup championship the year before last,” Chen Xing brought up the topic.

“Yeah, that did happen,” Yue Qianyuan sighed with a hint of regret. “It’s a shame I couldn’t be part of that. I heard they throw a huge party if we win, and then I could’ve slipped out to have some fun.”

After hearing this, Chen Xing was silent. He had expected Yue Qianyuan to mention some more enticing reward, not this.

“Then doesn’t your school’s team have a good chance of winning the championship again this year?” Chen Xing asked.

Yue Qianyuan paused in his skewering, looked at Chen Xing with a hint of wariness, and said, “Are you trying to scout the enemy?”

“Not at all, I’m just curious. And even if I were, our school wouldn’t be a concern, right? Our school doesn’t even make the top hundred,” Chen Xing chuckled.

In Shu State, only two schools are honored to enter the top hundred of the National High School Cup: Tianwu High School and Azure Dragon High.

However, Azure Dragon High’s entry into the top hundred was a long time ago, dating back to the first two sessions of the High School Cup.

“That’s true, I don’t mean to look down on your school, I’m just stating the facts. Have you ever thought about transferring to our school? We definitely have more resources, being an old championship school after all,” Yue Qianyuan put his cards on the table.

“So you’re directly trying to poach me when all I did was casually ask about your team?” Chen Xing was both amused and exasperated; this guy was really not willing to be at any disadvantage.

“Our teacher asked me to inquire, and I think it’s a good suggestion,” Yue Qianyuan said casually. “If you came, we could team up for the High School Cup with a full Water Element team! Your Beast Taming is Water Element, mine is too; plus, your Beast Taming comes with an ‘arena skill’. If we build a dual-core team around the two of us, we could even give the guy from Mingde a run for his money.”

“No thanks, my family and friends are all here,” Chen Xing politely declined Yue Qianyuan’s offer, “and my school has been of great help to me.”

Yue Qianyuan felt it was a pity.

But since he was rejected, he didn’t keep pushing, simply lifting his soy milk and saying, “Come on, cheers!”

Bang~

The glass cups clinked with a crisp sound.

“Our school isn’t aiming for the championship this year,” Yue Qianyuan shook his head, “Our goal is probably just to keep our spot in the top four.”

“Actually, all the major high schools secretly gather information on their competitors. Though there’s no match, we all know in our hearts which school has the biggest chance of winning the championship. This year, the biggest hope for the championship is from Hanhai High School.”

Chen Xing’s interest was piqued, and he topped up Yue Qianyuan’s cup with soy milk, “Go on.”

Yue Qianyuan took the drink and said, “I can do it myself, no need to be so courteous, it makes me kind of embarrassed.”

He took a sip of soy milk to ease the spiciness in his mouth and continued, “Hanhai High School’s performance this year has been outstanding; they crushed their opponents throughout the Jinmen Cup. And from the start of the competition to the finals, only three members of their team took action.”

Chen Xing was surprised.

Four people and only three took action? That confident?

“Yup, that’s right, and the one who didn’t take action was their team captain. You know, the team captain is usually the trump card, otherwise, they can’t command respect from the other members.”

Chen Xing nodded; it made sense, the team captain couldn’t be the weakest link.

Otherwise, everyone’s young and full of spirit; why should they listen to you?

Having drunk some soy milk, Yue Qianyuan’s cheeks were flushed, perhaps a bit tipsy, as he began to comment on this year’s contenders for the High School Cup.

“Let’s not talk about the ‘Old Five Tigers.’ You know, our Dragon City Xingchen, Haimen Hanhai, Chuzhou Mingde, Jizhou Changning, Modu Yunlong – these five schools have always been strong competitors.”

“Besides the Old Five Tigers, there’s now a buzz online about a new ‘Top Four Schools’: Longshang Desert, Nanzhou Qihang, Guandong Zhuoyue, Yunlu High, and Qilu High.”

“That’s five schools,” Chen Xing corrected.

“Isn’t it common knowledge that the ‘Four Heavenly Kings’ are five?”

Yue Qianyuan cracked a joke, then explained, “The main reason is that all five of these schools have been rising swiftly in power over the last decade, always ranking high. Aside from Longshang Desert, which is universally acknowledged, the other four schools are neck and neck in terms of popularity.”

Chen Xing could guess why Longshang Desert Experimental High School was acknowledged as incredibly strong: it was the champion of last year’s High School Cup.

Unknown before the battle, but renowned across the country overnight.

Of course, calling it “unknown” might be an exaggeration, as this was a consistently stable top hundred school, just much more low-key compared to the other famous schools.

“Aside from the potential champion contenders, there are some other top hundred schools, as well as many high schools that value participation.” Yue Qianyuan went on, “Your school belonged to the latter before, didn’t it?”

Chen Xing nodded, his heart filled with emotion, acknowledging that there was indeed a significant gap between the schools.

But wasn’t that what made it more interesting?

He raised his cup of soy milk and drank it down in one gulp.

If it were a team that regularly won championships, so what if they won again?

Others wouldn’t remember you, they would just note that your school won yet another championship.

On the other hand, leading an obscure school step by step to the peak and dethroning an established champion was far more fascinating.

After the meal, Chen Xing and Yue Qianyuan exchanged contact information and agreed to meet again when the opportunity arose.

“I wonder when we will meet again next time. If there’s no activity like this, our next meeting could only be two years later at the college cup,” Yue Qianyuan said with emotion.

Deep down, he thought that the strength of the team at the school where Chen Xing was, was quite average, and it would be very difficult for them to make it to the top hundred in this year’s college cup, so the chances of them meeting again this year and next year were very slim. They would have to wait for the competition two years later, but by then they would be opponents on the field.

…

After returning to school, Chen Xing immersed himself back into the tranquil life of nurturing Beast Tamings every day.

Under his meticulous care, both Beast Taming’s energy levels and body sizes were steadily growing at a visibly fast rate, with every day filled with new changes.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, more than half a month had passed.

“Come, stand up straight, back straight, don’t hunch.”

Chen Xing took a ruler and asked Sìxiàng to stand straight against the wall.

Behind the wall was a wooden vertical ruler with notches carved into it with a pencil knife, which recorded the daily height changes of Sìxiàng.

“Not bad, not bad, it grew another two centimeters,” Chen Xing said with satisfaction, as Sìxiàng’s height had already reached 1.4 meters.

The energy level limit of Sìxiàng is 87. Generally speaking, before a Beast Taming’s energy level reaches its limit, each breakthrough in energy level will bring about an increase in body size.

A high energy level limit also means that Chen Xing doesn’t need to prepare much for Sìxiàng’s evolution for quite a long time.

If they could maintain this efficiency, there should be no problem for Sìxiàng’s size to grow to three or four meters tall in the future.

Compared to when it first arrived at home, Sìxiàng now appeared much “gentler,” resembling a silly and cute black-headed eagle.

“Alright, off you go,” Chen Xing patted Sìxiàng’s head and turned back to his bedroom study to start watching Beast Tamer battle videos on his tablet.

Sìxiàng who just left the bedroom glanced at Chen Guohai sitting on the sofa, and silently sat down on the floor next to the sofa.

Now at home, it liked to squat and rest, with its two slender claw arms passing through its legs and lying flat on the ground, while its three pairs of hefty wings lay casually on the floor.

Chen Guohai glanced at it and asked, “You want to watch TV?”

Sìxiàng silently nodded.

If there was one hobby Sìxiàng picked up during this time, it was learning to watch TV.

“Change the channel yourself,” Chen Guohai threw the remote to Sìxiàng.

Sìxiàng caught the remote and carefully pressed the buttons.

It quickly switched to the program it wanted to watch.

Chen Guohai liked to watch political news, but Sìxiàng wasn’t interested in such programs. It preferred watching “Exotic Wilderness,” a reality recording program filmed by professionally trained Beast Tamings with miniature cameras deep in the Exotic Region’s wilderness.

The program vividly displayed the various living habits of different monster species, providing many ordinary residents with the most convenient way to understand the Exotic Regions.

Upon hearing the TV, Taotie who was sprawling like a super-large black leather sofa in the living room got up, its face full of disdain. What’s so interesting about little people moving inside an iron frame? Childish!

Lifting its head, it crawled into the bedroom, eager to find its master.

However, as its size had been growing, it had to squeeze its body to get through the doorway every time, even having to tilt and slowly crawl in due to the size of the bedroom door.

Although the bedroom space in the house was not small, considering Beast Tamings’ attributes, the developer had constructed the house with rather spacious bedrooms. But this spaciousness was relative to beasts of average size.

For Taotie, a big fellow, the room undoubtedly felt a bit cramped.

“Roar roar.” Taotie placed its big head next to Chen Xing.

Chen Xing looked down and, taking off his slippers, tapped his feet against Taotie’s big head.

Taotie comfortably squinted its eyes.

“I’ll take you out to play in a bit,” Chen Xing said.

At the words “go out to play,” Taotie’s eyes lit up, and it made a cooing sound in its throat.

“Stop cooing, how can you coo when you’re so big.”

Chen Xing glanced at Taotie’s panel from the corner of his eye.

Tonight, it would reach Energy Level 35, awakening its last skill at this phase.

To awaken new skills, they would have to wait until after its evolution.

Chen Xing already had a plan for this skill slot; it definitely had to be a displacement skill.

He knew from his gaming experience that a warrior without a displacement skill was soulless.

Once Taotie mastered a displacement skill, its combat power would definitely climb to a new level. It would be great if it could directly awaken a displacement skill this time, saving an expense.

After watching videos for a while, Chen Xing figured it was about time for the breakthrough and took Taotie downstairs for a walk.

Behind the family compound of the police station was a small park, which was almost empty after ten o’clock at night.

Taotie dived into the pond, swimming happily in the cold pond water.

While swimming, a blue light suddenly flashed across its body, and all the water in the pond seemed to cheer and jump, sending waves splashing everywhere. Chen Xing found this spectacle quite unusual.

He quickly checked the new skill.

Advanced Skill—[Deep Sea Assault]

The only Advanced displacement skill that a Salty Bay Crocodile could awaken.