Chapter 25: Chapter 25: Stupid Puppy! You’ve Crossed the Line

"Holy crap! This is intense!"

"Damn, it’s all over me!"

"Awesome, awesome, awesome! Damn, this feels like watching the World Championships!"

The perimeter of the arena was constrained by an invisible energy field, but the top was open.

The Sandstorm, launched into the air, shot out of the arena and rained down on the crowd of onlookers.

The students didn’t care one bit. In fact, they all looked thrilled, as if thinking, ’This is so badass!’

A few were even picking up grains of sand as souvenirs.

If Su Zhi became famous in the future, wouldn’t the sand summoned by Yu Bao be priceless?

On the stage, the situation seemed to have returned to how it was at the start.

Yu Bao and Xiaoyue each occupied one end of the arena, but after a fierce battle, their positions were now swapped.

Xiaoyue frowned and spat twice.

The dumb little dog’s Sandstorm hadn’t hurt him, but the noble Cultivation Cat had gotten a mouthful of sand.

"Grrr..."

"..." Xiaoyue glanced back at Su Zhi.

Su Zhi tucked his hands into his sleeves. "It’s fine. You two, carry on."

On the other side of the arena.

"HAH... HAH..." Yu Bao also looked back at Shao Ya.

"You’re doing great! You might actually be able to beat Xiaoyue!" Shao Ya said with a sweet smile, giving Yu Bao a thumbs-up.

Yu Bao was so delighted its eyes curved into crescents, looking like it was about to burst with bubbly joy.

Xiaoyue’s gaze turned cold.

’Damn it, that’s *my* master.’

’You dumb little dog! You’ve crossed the line!’

’Die!’

"Attaboy, Yu Bao! Xiaoyue’s getting flustered! Stay steady, we can win this!"

"Woof!"

Sure enough, once Big Bro Xiaoyue got anxious, his attacks became disorganized.

The once tightly organized vines became chaotic. They looked intimidating, but they posed almost no substantial threat.

Xiaoyue itself also grew reckless, trying to end the fight up close with pure speed and power.

Faced with a gap in raw Power, Yu Bao responded calmly. It used the Earth Force Field to alter the terrain, constantly forming floating chunks of earth to restrict Xiaoyue’s pursuit.

The distance between them kept shrinking.

Before he knew it, Xiaoyue had fallen into a trap set by Yu Bao, just like that day when he was chasing its tail.

*WHOOSH!*

As it ran to the edge of the arena, Yu Bao suddenly made a sharp turn.

A feint of this level could at best trick the Little Black Fighting Emperor; it certainly wouldn’t fool Xiaoyue.

However, just as Xiaoyue was about to adjust its direction, it suddenly felt its paws snag.

Its eyes flew wide open.

During the chase, it had grown accustomed to Yu Bao using floating chunks of earth to block it, and in doing so, had fallen into the rhythm Yu Bao had set.

And at this moment, this sudden stumbling block was the change in rhythm Yu Bao had been planning all along!

Xiaoyue immediately lost its balance.

Yu Bao stopped and looked back.

It had let itself be chased all this time just to lure Xiaoyue to the edge of the arena, waiting for this perfect opportunity to strike!

’Big Bro! Here I come!’

With victory within its grasp, Yu Bao lunged at Xiaoyue without hesitation, its hind legs kicking up.

This move was called Rabbit Kicks the Eagle!

*POOF!*

This time, it was Yu Bao’s turn to be shocked.

The instant its hind legs struck Xiaoyue, Xiaoyue’s body suddenly turned into two vines, which drifted lightly out of the arena.

Meanwhile, a vine that Xiaoyue had seemingly dropped by accident began to grow rapidly. Surrounded by a cluster of vines, Xiaoyue slowly walked out.

The Cultivation Cat looked completely calm. Where was the flustered appearance from before?

"Yu Bao, dodge! Quick!"

"Woof..." (’I charged... I charged too fast, I’m gonna fall off...’)

"..."

Su Zhi could only watch as Xiaoyue walked to the edge of the arena, gently extended a front paw, and pushed the struggling, off-balance Yu Bao off the stage.

...

After the quiz—

"Woof woof woof!" (’So strong! As expected of Big Bro!’)

"Meow..." (’Stop pawing at me...’)

Looking at the excited Yu Bao, Xiaoyue wore a helpless expression.

’Happy when it wins, happy when it loses... does Su Zhi, that Beast Tamer, even know how bizarre this dumb little dog’s logic is?’

—Of course, Su Zhi knew exactly why Yu Bao was so happy...

[Assignable Attribute Points... 0.05]

Looking at the newly acquired Points, Su Zhi tucked his hands in his sleeves and smiled without a word.

’You are not the dog, so how can you know the dog’s joy?’

Shao Ya poked him, a playful look on her face. "Any thoughts, God Su?"

Su Zhi deadpanned, "My thought is that I was played."

"Ehehe."

"But Xiaoyue knows Forest Stand-In. Even if the fight had continued, Yu Bao would have lost."

Su Zhi propped his chin on his hand and nodded. "Overall, it’s still a matter of being less skilled."

Forest Stand-In, a Wood Element Low Level Elite Skill. Its Effect is to use surrounding vegetation as a Stand-In, then rapidly regrow and reform oneself from that vegetation.

This Skill is very difficult for a juvenile Pet Beast to learn. Among all the first-years, only Xiaoyue had mastered it.

Paired with Vine Fury, you could say it’s basically unstoppable.

—Of course, Xiaoyue had also completed all the training tasks on its syllabus, unlike a certain naughty little dog.

"But it’s not like there was no way around it! If Yu Bao had stuck to its opening strategy, Xiaoyue would have had a much harder time."

Shao Ya analyzed the fight with him, petting Xiaoyue as she spoke.

"Yu Bao’s biggest disadvantage in this fight was the lack of an effective escape move. That’s why it could only maintain a stalemate and couldn’t pull off a surprise victory."

"Huh? I seem to remember that Yu Bao’s specialized Skill path has a Skill like that, doesn’t it?"

Su Zhi nodded. "Actually, Yu Bao was practicing Desert Concealment just last night, but it hasn’t learned it yet."

"You’ve... really gone completely off the rails."

Emperor Shao revealed a wry smile, the kind that said, ’I’ve really never seen anything like this before.’

Besides Su Zhi and Shao Ya, most of the other students were just slacking off. The best of them were just cramming at the last minute: having their Pet Beasts practice last week’s required Skills a bit more, while they themselves memorized some tactical routines from the textbook.

It wasn’t uncommon for students to arrange things before the quiz, with both sides just going through the motions of a rehearsed routine once they got on stage.

Even if they lost, as long as the student demonstrated what they’d learned during the quiz, the teacher would give them a decent score and not make things difficult.

Very few students would actually use the quiz to identify their weaknesses and make targeted changes for their Pet Beasts.

In this day and age, where the theoretical system of Beast Taming was incredibly mature, the syllabus and the textbook were everything.

Rather than ’thinking,’ it was better to just follow the steps: train, demonstrate, and get points.

"It’s fine, not a big deal."

Speaking of the next few weeks, Su Zhi gave Shao Ya a thumbs-up.

"Xiaoyue and I never do the homework anyway, so an increased workload doesn’t affect us. We’ll just focus on practicing our own thing."

"Pfft! Aren’t you afraid Teacher Zhou will hear you?"

"Who’s afraid of that bald—"

As he spoke, Su Zhi calmly turned around and saw the dangerously amiable bald old man.

"...I’d be the one to pick a fight with him," Su Zhi added.

"Alright, I didn’t hear anything."

Zhou Shengfa pushed up his glasses, a smile on his face. "A good post-mortem. It wasn’t a waste for me to specially match you two together."

"...So you were the one pulling the strings behind the scenes?"

Shao Ya lightly punched Su Zhi. "It’s called macroeconomic control."

Zhou Shengfa’s expression didn’t change. "Right now in Class 10, only Shao Ya can put any pressure on you. Matching you with anyone else would be meaningless."

"To make the most of these twenty days, I don’t mind pulling a few strings. What do you think?"

Su Zhi nodded in agreement. "True. I also feel like I’m lacking in real combat experience."

’I’d be happier if you felt like you should be doing your homework...’

Zhou Shengfa sighed wistfully, then cleared his throat and put on a serious expression.

"In that case, how about I give you a real combat opportunity?"

"Give?"

"Don’t say I’m an incompetent teacher. To train the three of you, I specifically contacted some graduates from previous years to be your sparring partners."

Zhou Shengfa gave a small smile. "You haven’t seen Liu Yuhang, right? He went over right after his quiz."

"There’s an opportunity that good?!"

"They’re on the athletic field. You two can go right now."

"Teacher! You’re a god!"

Su Zhi and Shao Ya zipped off in a flash.

Zhou Shengfa watched their backs as they ran into the distance.

Suddenly, his phone rang.

"Piao, it’s me. What’s up... Hmm? For real?"

Zhou Shengfa’s brow furrowed.

"Outrageous! Which class are they from? I’ll send Zishu over right now!"

A moment later, his brow smoothed out.

"Oh, then it’s fine."

"No need. You just watch the show."