Beast Taming: I Can Add Points

"Is this fighting of yours even serious?"

"Give Su Baby a punch!"

The two bickered for a while. She wasn’t in a hurry to leave his embrace, and he wasn’t in a hurry to help her up.

·

「Huai City, Wudu New Village.」

In front of the garage, Su Mao and Wang Sujuan sat side-by-side on small stools. They held a large watermelon together, with two spoons stuck in it.

The couple watched Wu Bao’s performance with great interest.

"WOO WOO!"

Wu Bao had climbed up the pine tree they often used for testing Skills and was waving excitedly to its mom and dad.

The branches groaned with difficulty.

Directly below Wu Bao was a bathtub the couple had specifically moved out of the house. Its capacity was a bit concerning—it probably couldn’t even fit Wu Bao’s horn.

The couple’s eyes were filled with a mixture of nervousness and anticipation.

Then, Wu Bao leaped high, completed a difficult maneuver—a 360-degree spinning jump with its eyes closed—and plummeted downward.

Just before landing, Wu Bao’s body suddenly shrank to one-fifth its size, landing steadily in the bathtub with a small splash.

"WOO!" Wu Bao poked its head out of the bathtub and raised its two front paws.

"Wu Bao is awesome!"

Su Mao and Wang Sujuan said in unison, holding up scoring cards they had pulled from who-knows-where. Ten points, a perfect score!

Wu Bao climbed out of the tub, Bling Bling, and went over to act cute with the two of them.

Su Mao and Wang Sujuan took turns feeding themselves spoonfuls of watermelon. Having gotten used to feeding the fluffy Yu Bao and Shan Bao, the miniaturized Wu Bao was hitting a strange, cute nerve.

"I hear this size-changing Skill of Wu Bao’s is quite something. Usually, only very powerful Pet Beasts can master it."

Su Mao smiled. "I told you Wu Bao has the makings of a Great Emperor!"

Wang Sujuan, however, blinked worriedly. "But when will Xiaoshu be able to form a contract with Wu Bao? I heard you need a Tier Five Beast Taming Space to contract three Pet Beasts. Isn’t Xiaoshu’s head teacher the only one with three? Does that mean Xiaoshu has to wait until he’s as strong as his head teacher..."

Su Mao laughed. "It’s not that far off. I heard his head teacher reached Tier Five in college. It’s just that advancing further is harder, so he’s been stuck at Tier Five and hasn’t progressed since. Xiaoshu is already Tier Three at such a young age. There’s hope for him to reach Tier Five before he graduates high school!"

Of course, though he said it aloud, inwardly Su Mao only considered it a beautiful wish.

Never mind Tier Five; reaching Tier Four before graduating high school would be insanely impressive. That was a level only the top students from major cities could achieve.

Actually, in the past, that was the level of an undergraduate. The competition has just gotten too intense these past two years...

Su Zhi had been too busy to call them these past two days. ’He must be caught up in the competition too, right?’

After all, Huai City was still too small, and the world outside was vast.

"As long as he does his best, and nothing bad happens, that’s what’s most important," Wang Sujuan muttered under her breath as she fed Wu Bao.

"Even if Xiaoshu gets stuck at Tier Four forever, it doesn’t matter. Worst comes to worst, we’ll just raise Wu Bao like this. He can change his size, which is pretty convenient, anyway."

Su Mao gave a comical smile. "Aww, feeling sorry for your son now? What happened to shouting that Xiaoshu is the best in the world?"

Wang Sujuan glared at him.

Su Mao covered his head and crouched defensively.

"My husband is number one in the world! If heaven hadn’t blessed us with the Gou of Gou Mao, web novels would be stuck in an eternal night~"

Wang Sujuan gave him a radiantly sinister smile. "Great God Gou Mao, remember you haven’t updated today~! You promised your readers that if you missed another update this week, you’d livestream yourself cross-dressing and dancing to Gokuraku Jodo~"

Su Mao lowered his head in regret. "Sorry, I was being a little too loud..."

Wu Bao, eating watermelon, looked at him with anticipation.

Su Mao suddenly looked up. "Right, do you remember I told you a new author joined our group? Their pen name is Wu Bao?"

Wu Bao’s ears perked up.

Wang Sujuan’s interest was piqued as well. "I remember. How are they doing?"

"Holy shit, their results are explosive."

Su Mao sighed with emotion. "It’s only the first round of recommendations, and they already have over three thousand followers. And that was the data from Tuesday; I’d conservatively estimate it’s four thousand by now."

Wang Sujuan covered her mouth in surprise. "That’s amazing... Did you have that many followers when your book went premium?"

"No... When I went premium, my first-day subscriptions just barely qualified for the ’Boutique’ tier. For this Wu Bao, getting over ten thousand first-day subscriptions is pretty much a sure thing."

Su Mao gave a wry smile. "I’ve read the book. The selling point is really novel—it’s a story about being reincarnated as a Pet Beast... And the descriptions are so detailed and realistic that if they hadn’t joined the group chat and posted in it, I’d suspect they had actually been a Pet Beast before. This kind of story is hard to write, but if you do it well, not only does it have a wide audience, but there’s also no competition. It’ll take off in no time."

Wang Sujuan laughed along with him. "Maybe one day you’ll check, and it’ll turn out our Wu Bao wrote it! Ahahahaha!"

"Hahahahaha! Wu Bao, why don’t you try writing a book? Daddy will teach you step-by-step! I can’t guarantee its performance, but getting a contract shouldn’t be a problem!"

"Shoo, shoo. Encouraging people to write is a sin punishable by lightning. Have you written today’s update yet?"

"Waaah... When will this damn book ever end... Wu Bao, come help Daddy write!"

"Woo." Wu Bao looked on, eating its watermelon, the picture of innocence.

Wu Bao doesn’t know how to write books. Wu Bao is just a harmless little Black Fighting Emperor~

...

「Evening.」

「Storm Dragon Palace.」

The appearance of the Abyssal Exotic Beast had plunged the entire Storm Fish Dragon Race into a state of tension.

Fortunately, humans and the Fish Dragon Race had now established diplomatic relations. After reaching an agreement through mutual negotiations, the Purity Abyss Alliance dispatched a reconnaissance team with all-domain radar to the waters above the Dragon Palace, using modern technology to track the Abyssal Exotic Beast’s movements around the clock.

Only then did the Fish Dragon Race lift their high alert, gradually returning to their usual rhythm.

Today was also the last day for Su Zhi and the others with the Fish Dragon Race. The team competition tryouts would officially begin the day after tomorrow, so everyone needed to return to the training base tomorrow to rest.

Accompanied by Su Zhi’s group, Xiaolan returned to the Storm Dragon Palace to meet with Han Lan.

Han Lan and Chang Xi were both in their chambers, as if they had long expected them to come.

Han Lan’s gaze was surprisingly calm, holding neither anger nor blame, neither worry nor fear.

Xiaolan shrank back, feeling a little cowardly.

’Usually, this kind of calm means he’s extremely angry. It’s the calm before the storm...’

However, encouraged by Shao Ya’s gaze, Xiaolan still summoned her courage and took a step forward—

She bowed deeply before her father in a dramatic, full-prostration apology.

"Hiss!"

’Father, I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have been so willful. I’ll definitely change my ways!’

Han Lan chuckled softly. [You’re quite skilled at apologizing. Practice makes perfect, as they say.]

Xiaolan scratched her head in embarrassment.

[Xiaolan, let me ask you a question. When you face an enemy you cannot defeat, are you afraid?] Han Lan asked.

Xiaolan nodded.

Han Lan looked at her calmly. [If that’s the case, then why did you step forward and stand in front of others? You should know that doing so wouldn’t have changed anything, and you would have just thrown your life away for nothing.]

"...Hiss!" Xiaolan was silent for a moment, then suddenly raised her head.

’I just wanted to protect Sister Shao Ya. I didn’t think about anything else. If you overthink some things, no one will ever do them.’

Shao Ya lowered her head, unable to stop the corners of her lips from curling up.

Han Lan remained impassive and turned his gaze to Shao Ya. [Miss Shao Ya, it is thanks to you that Xiaolan is safe today. I am truly grateful. I owe you yet another favor.]

"Oh, no, no!"

Shao Ya quickly waved her hands with a smile. "I’m the one who should be thanking Xiaolan! It’s because she was so brave and protected me that I wasn’t injured.

"Xiaolan is still a bit immature, but she’s a good child, kind and brave. I hope Your Excellency the Clan Leader can give her a little more time. She’s trying hard to change!"

Xiaolan lowered her head, trying hard to hide her trembling eyes.

Han Lan saw everything, and the corner of his mouth curved up imperceptibly.

[Mm, I will. You have all worked hard today. Go back and rest. Dinner will be ready shortly. I will inform you all when it is time.]

"Then we’ll be taking our leave, Clan Leader. Thank you for your trouble!"

...

Watching the figures of Su Zhi’s group departing the Dragon Palace, Han Lan and Chang Xi looked at each other and smiled, then nodded in unison, as if they had finally made a decision.

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