Chapter 283 - 257: Yu Jinhai Pays a Visit
After his call with Elder Tie, Li Qian didn’t do much of anything. Aside from dinner, he spent the rest of his time resting.
He went to bed very early that night. After finishing dinner, he took a short walk and then went to sleep.
He set an alarm and was woken up by it right at three in the morning.
Without wasting any time, he got dressed, got in his car, and left the Cultivation Base.
His father, Li Chengyang, and his mother, Han Yuqing, left with him.
Their destination was the Pet Beast Laboratory, not far from the Jiaoyang Cultivation Base.
Though it was called the Pet Beast Laboratory, they had bought out an entire abandoned amusement park, so it was more of an experimental base than a lab. After all, no ordinary laboratory was this massive.
The Cultivation Base wasn’t far from the laboratory.
And since it was three in the morning, the roads were practically empty, making the drive quick and easy.
It only took about ten minutes for the car to arrive at the Pet Beast Laboratory.
After getting out of the car, Li Qian walked straight into the laboratory.
The interior of the lab was brightly lit. Clearly, under An Hou Nian’s supervision, all the pre-evolution preparations were complete.
After a quick scan of the area, Li Qian wasted no time and began the evolution process.
An Hou Nian immediately dismissed all staff members near the water slide.
Only Li Qian and his parents remained.
Li Qian saw this and nodded in satisfaction.
He summoned Qizai.
The moment Qizai, who had already reached the Elite High Order, appeared, it captured the attention of every Koi Carp in the pond.
These Koi Carp all had excellent aptitude.
But at the end of the day, a Koi Carp is still a Koi Carp.
Their Potential determined their level of sentience and intelligence.
Of course, they still had the instinct to look up to the strong.
Thus, their gazes toward Qizai were filled not only with fear but also with deep envy.
Using Qizai as an interpreter, Li Qian first selected one of the Koi Carp.
This particular Koi Carp was the most active of the bunch.
It leaped from the water before Li Qian had even approached.
’Being so active is a double-edged sword.’
Seeing its liveliness, Li Qian didn’t overthink it and chose it right away.
’Letting it go first should be a good choice.’
With that thought, he tossed a bag of Dragon Bone Powder next to it.
The Koi Carp didn’t hesitate, swallowing the entire bag of Dragon Bone Powder in one gulp.
As the Dragon Bone Powder settled in its stomach, a faint Light of Evolution began to emanate from its body.
At a gesture from Li Qian, the Koi Carp shot toward the water slide.
Li Qian didn’t just stand there either.
He calmly walked to the back of the water slide and took the elevator to the top.
’I’m not too optimistic about this one, but I can’t skip the necessary preparations.’
He would be furious with himself if it failed to evolve because of something he did.
The Koi Carp sprinted continuously, using its Climbing Waterfall Skill to ascend higher and higher. However, after reaching a height of eighty meters, its stamina was clearly flagging.
"Sigh..." Li Qian couldn’t help but sigh at the sight.
From the looks of it, it was now basically impossible for this Koi Carp to complete its evolution.
Having evolved so many Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragons, Li Qian was confident in his judgment.
Soon enough, his judgment was proven correct.
Upon reaching about ninety-five meters, the Koi Carp finally hit its limit.
It didn’t have an ounce of strength left in its body.
In the end, it could only fall helplessly back into the water.
The first Koi Carp failed to evolve, but Li Qian wasn’t discouraged.
The first attempt is always the hardest. Plus, it was clearly overexcited and exerted itself too much, so failure was to be expected.
After offering a few words of comfort, Li Qian had the Koi Carp rest on the side.
He would definitely give it another chance later.
If it couldn’t seize either of the two opportunities, it would just have to wait for the next batch.
Li Qian couldn’t keep making exceptions for a few individuals.
After the first Koi Carp’s failure, the second one’s evolution began shortly after.
It was fed the same Dragon Bone Powder and used the same Climbing Waterfall Skill to make its ascent.
As it climbed higher, a gratified smile spread across Li Qian’s face.
Unlike the first one, this second Koi Carp had a much calmer temperament.
There were no signs of it overexerting itself.
This meant it had a much better chance of completing its evolution.
With his wealth of successful experience, Li Qian’s judgment was, as always, spot on.
Sure enough, the second Koi Carp steadily climbed the hundred-meter waterfall. With a perfectly timed Wind Chime Fruit from Li Qian, it successfully evolved into a Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragon.
"ROAR..."
Having successfully evolved, the Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragon let out an excited roar.
Li Qian just shook his head helplessly.
If he had his way, he’d prefer these newly evolved Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragons to be a little more low-key.
Still, he could understand its excitement.
After all, it was an incredibly important life-changing transformation.
It was only normal for its emotions to be uncontrollable.
Paying no mind to the newly evolved Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragon, Li Qian methodically continued his work.
Perhaps encouraged by the second Koi Carp’s success, the subsequent evolutions went much more smoothly.
After going through the whole batch, only the first and eighth Koi Carp failed to evolve on their first try.
Li Qian was already very satisfied with this result.
A full eight Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragons would be more than enough for the Cultivation Base for a while.
Besides, it wasn’t as if the remaining two Koi Carp were out of chances.
Around 5:30 AM, Li Qian gave them their second chance.
Maybe they had heeded Li Qian’s words, maybe they were inspired by the successful examples, or maybe their previous experience helped, but this time, both Koi Carp completed their evolution.
All ten Koi Carp had evolved into Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragons. Seeing this, Li Qian couldn’t help the proud expression that spread across his face.
"I told you, you didn’t have to come with me."
After finishing his work, Li Qian went over to his parents, threw up his hands, and said in a lighthearted tone, "You would’ve been better off staying at the base and getting some rest instead of coming here at three in the morning."
"Especially you, Mom. Don’t forget, staying up late causes wrinkles when you get to your age!"
His mother, Han Yuqing, heard Li Qian’s teasing and shook her head, unconcerned. "I’m already at this age. Isn’t it normal to have wrinkles?"
"The Koi Carp’s evolution is a huge deal for our Cultivation Base. We wouldn’t have been able to rest easy if we hadn’t come to see for ourselves," Li Chengyang added in agreement.
Li Qian nodded. "Alright, you’ve seen it for yourselves. The evolution was a success. All ten Koi Carp evolved into Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragons. You can rest easy now, right? I’m exhausted from waking up at three in the morning. Let’s head back early!"
After completing the evolution work, the family of three didn’t linger at the laboratory.
They left the cleanup to An Hou Nian and returned to the Cultivation Base.
After a quick breakfast, Li Qian went back to his room in Building One and crashed into bed.
He planned to catch up on his sleep.
That was Li Qian’s plan, but unfortunately, it was quickly interrupted.
Around nine in the morning, his mother, Han Yuqing, knocked on his door.
"The hell? The vice-principal of Zhonghai Beast Taming University is here and wants to talk to me?" Shaken awake by his mother, Li Qian felt a giant question mark appear over his head as he listened to her.
He’d just been joking about this with Iron Lad yesterday. He never thought the joke would actually come true today.
This vice-principal from Zhonghai Beast Taming University was, in all likelihood, the same one who had called him a couple of days ago.
Li Qian didn’t have a very good impression of him.
But his mother didn’t know that. Given that the visitor was the vice-principal of Zhonghai Beast Taming University—a person of considerable status—it was only natural that she would wake him.
Since he was already awake and his sleep had been disturbed, Li Qian figured he might as well get up. He threw on some clothes and prepared to go downstairs to meet this vice-principal.
Soon, Li Qian made his way to the reception hall of Building One, his eyes still heavy with sleep and his hair a messy mop.
"Student Li Qian, hello!" Seeing Li Qian, the paunchy, middle-aged Vice-Principal Yu Jinhai immediately greeted him with a smile.
"Hello," Li Qian yawned, then politely returned the greeting.