The sunlight quietly retreated from the hallway.

CLICK. The doors to rooms 301 and 302 opened at the same time.

Xiaoyue tentatively peeked out...

And was greeted by the sight of Yu Bao’s doggy face as he bounded over, all "Bling Bling".

"Haaaah!"

’Bro Xiaoyue, let me tell you! I had a dream at lunchtime about...’

Xiaoyue quickly tried to slam the door shut, but it was too late. The moment he did, Yu Bao took a high leap and, relying on his point-boosted agility, jumped right into the room.

"HAAAH! HAAAH!"

"Meeooowwwl..."

The excited yaps of the Dog and the hopeless sighs of the Cultivation Cat echoed from within the room.

Su Zhi casually opened his door. "Yu Bao, stop messing around... Huh?"

The lazy afternoon sun rested on the white bedsheets. A young woman was kneeling in a pool of bright light, a hair tie held between her teeth as she gathered her hair into a ponytail.

Seeing Su Zhi come in, she tilted her head slightly. Her fingers, which had been holding her ponytail, loosened, and her long, brilliant white hair cascaded down like a waterfall.

"Are you here to tie my hair for me?"

"My mistake!"

Su Zhi slammed the door shut.

"And here I thought Su Baby was a mature young man. Turns out you’re so shy~" the young woman’s teasing voice drifted from behind the door.

"Enough nonsense... Are you coming or not? If you’re not, I’m leaving." Su Zhi’s face felt a little hot.

"Coming, coming~"

·

The City Tournament was scheduled to officially begin tomorrow morning, and all contestants were required to complete their check-in by this morning.

From the afternoon into the evening, the organizers were holding a social mixer inside the competition venue.

First, it was to provide a friendly and relaxed atmosphere to ease the tension before the next day’s competition. Second, it was to give the contestants an opportunity to expand their networks.

They might be competitors today, but who was to say they wouldn’t end up together in the future?

—And! To give everyone a better social experience, the organizing committee had specially brought in a group of Ice Element Pet Beasts to make free matcha-flavored ice cream for everyone!

"There are way too many people."

Staring at the sea of people in the competition venue, Su Zhi felt a headache coming on.

"Come on, want to walk around?"

Shao Ya clasped her hands behind her back, took a step forward, and looked at Su Zhi with vibrant eyes. "Even if we don’t make friends, it’s still worth going in to mooch some free matcha ice cream."

Remembering those two characters, Cao Mingyu and Fang Yuan, Su Zhi now had some trauma when it came to making friends. "Let’s just forget it..."

"We’re already here!"

Shao Ya blinked. "You don’t want matcha ice cream either?"

"I don’t want any."

Just then, a contestant walked past holding an ice cream, and Su Zhi subconsciously licked his lips.

Shao Ya rolled her eyes and gave a helpless smile.

"Alright, you stay right here and don’t move. I’ll go get us a couple of ice creams."

"Thanks."

Su Zhi and Yu Bao stood where they were, watching as Shao Ya and Xiaoyue disappeared into the crowd.

After a moment, Yu Bao looked behind them and poked Su Zhi with his paw. "Arf."

"Hm?" Su Zhi followed his gaze and turned his head—

Standing behind him was an unfamiliar guy with a middle part, wearing the uniform of No. 3 High.

"Hello, I’m Xu Mingzhi from No. 3 High!"

Seeing Su Zhi notice him, the guy immediately put on a polite smile.

"Did you come with any classmates? If you don’t mind, want to add each other as friends and get acquainted?"

"Sure," Su Zhi said, breathing a sigh of relief as he pulled out his phone.

’For some reason, I feel a strange sense of accomplishment...’

’I’ve finally attracted a normal guy!!’

"Su Zhi?"

Looking at the friend request on his phone, Xu Mingzhi smiled faintly. "I heard there’s a Su Zhi at No. 1 High, too. He shot to prominence right before the qualifiers and made quite a splash."

’That’s right, and he’s standing right in front of you...’ Su Zhi just smiled, saying nothing.

’This is one of those times where all you can do is smile,’ he thought.

"It looks like you came alone," Xu Mingzhi asked after a moment of small talk. "What school are you from? Where are your classmates?"

Su Zhi’s smile faltered. The other guy didn’t seem interested in him, only in the school he represented.

"I’m an independent contestant. I don’t have an alma mater or classmates, only fellow followers of the Dao."

Xu Mingzhi froze for a moment.

Then, an undisguised look of contempt surfaced in his eyes.

"So you’re just some rube who bought his way in... What a jinx. A complete waste of my time."

Su Zhi raised an eyebrow. "Care to elaborate on the ’jinx’ part?"

"Can you stop playing dumb? You’re the one who got in through the back door. You know it better than I do."

Right in front of Su Zhi, Xu Mingzhi deleted him as a friend, making no effort to hide the contempt on his face.

"Independent contestants are a joke. If you didn’t buy your wild card spot, what? Did the chairman of the organizing committee personally approve it for you?"

’Yep, that’s it, you’ve figured it all out,’ Su Zhi thought, crossing his arms.

"GRRRR!" Yu Bao snarled, baring his teeth as he glared at Xu Mingzhi.

’This guy is not a good person!’

"What, was I wrong? Aren’t you just a mutt?"

Xu Mingzhi looked down at Yu Bao and laughed, feeling incredibly gratified.

All afternoon, as a student from No. 3 High, he had faced discrimination from many contestants from No. 1 and No. 2 High, simply because his school was a step down from theirs.

And now, he had finally found someone he could belittle and mock as he pleased!

"Yu Bao, easy there."

Su Zhi stroked Yu Bao’s head.

"There are different kinds of dogs, you know. We can’t just start barking back whenever we see a mad dog barking."

’That makes so much sense... As expected of my Beast Tamer, what a noble mindset!’

Yu Bao understood. He decided to repay grievance with virtue, putting on a smugly serene expression: ⌓‿⌓

"?!"

Xu Mingzhi’s blood pressure spiked, and he clenched his fists.

’Some nobody who got in as an independent dares to call me a mad dog?’

’And what’s with that little mutt’s expression!’

However, this was a pre-tournament social mixer; starting a fight would be too crude... As Xu Mingzhi stared intently at Su Zhi, lost in thought, his attention was stolen by a flash of brilliant white in his peripheral vision.

He saw a young woman with white hair and blue eyes, holding two ice creams. She seemed to have been standing there for some time.

Xu Mingzhi immediately forgot about Su Zhi and walked toward Shao Ya.

’This girl looks exceptional and refined,’ he thought. ’She’s holding two ice creams, so she must have gotten them for someone she’s planning to meet.’

’As long as I act polite, it shouldn’t be hard to get her contact info! Maybe we can even take our relationship a step further in the future...’

’As for that rube of an independent contestant, he wasn’t worth my time.’

"Hello there, I’m Xu Mingzhi from No. 3 High."

Xu Mingzhi walked up to Shao Ya and smiled, extending his right hand. "Can we be friends?"

Shao Ya also smiled faintly. "My hands are a bit full, so it’s not very convenient. Could you let me put these down first?"

’Her voice is beautiful, too—so cool and crisp! And her figure is...’

Xu Mingzhi swallowed hard, his smile widening uncontrollably. "Of course!"

Then, as he watched, dumbfounded, Shao Ya walked right past him and handed one of the ice creams to Su Zhi.

"It was so crowded, it took me a little while to get back out."

Shao Ya’s voice had a girlish liveliness. "Hurry and try it, see if it’s any good!"

"It’s pretty good."

Su Zhi remarked, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.

Shao Ya tilted her head with a smile and took a bite of her own.

At the same time, both of them felt that the ice cream tasted even better now.

·

·