Chapter 3: Moving House

"Mom, why did you smack the back of my head?"

Ye Xiangting gritted her teeth. "Awakening successfully is one thing, but why are you sighing after coming out properly!"

"The sister who checked me said my brain domain fluctuations are large and told me to rest well, but there are only 20 days left until the entrance exam. Isn't this delaying my studies?" Qiao Sang looked innocent.

Ye Xiangting: "..."

"Mom, what are you doing!"

"What are you doing!"

"Mom!"

What happened to the strong woman?

All that was left where they were standing was the Clever Fruit that had come out with Qiao Sang, left in the wind.

"Clever!"

Chasing and making noise are prohibited in the Beast-Taming Center!

As soon as she got home, Qiao Sang locked herself in her room and turned on the computer.

Originally, her mother meant to go to the Hangzhou Pet Base in the afternoon to choose a pet beast, but Qiao Sang refused.

As the mainstream of this world, choosing what kind of pet beast was naturally very important, because it was highly likely that a person could only contract one pet beast in their lifetime.

Beast-tamer ranks went from low to high, starting from F up to SSS.

F-rank beast-tamers were the simplest; as long as you reached 15, awakened the Beast-Taming Codex, and contracted a pet beast, you could go to the Beast-Taming Center for certification.

But to become an E-rank beast-tamer, you had to first develop your brain domain to 10%, so the Beast-Taming Codex could contract a second pet beast.

Then you had to cultivate two pet beasts that had evolved once, which were intermediate pet beasts.

Then, a 1V1 battle would be conducted by a notary from the Beast-Taming Alliance.

Only after winning could the information be changed to E-rank beast-tamer.

Some people, in order to cultivate intermediate pet beasts early, would choose Bug-element extraordinary creatures with shorter evolutionary cycles as their contract targets.

But Bug-element pet beasts that had only evolved once were too weak; except for beast-tamers with super-strong combat command, others simply couldn't win matches with them.

As an academic failure, the original owner's knowledge reserve was really not enough; the extraordinary creatures she remembered were all just good-looking.

What's the use of being good-looking? Can you win a fight?

If she couldn't win, how could she become a higher-ranked beast-tamer?

Choosing a pet beast naturally meant choosing those with high potential and strong combat power.

If she went to the Hangzhou Pet Base in the afternoon, she wouldn't even recognize the names, attributes, or what they evolved into after one or two evolutions, so how could she choose?

Qiao Sang felt that such things couldn't be rushed; she had to do her homework first.

She opened the forum and logged into her account, "Genius Again Again Again Wood."

This ID fully proved that every academic failure had a dream of a comeback.

Qiao Sang didn't choose to post a new thread. The beast-taming view of this world was already very mature, and every year there were tens of thousands of new beast-tamers who had just awakened.

Just flipping through, there were all kinds of posts from them.

Qiao Sang browsed the forum, and at a glance, everything was related to pet beasts.

【I was poisoned by a Little Scorpion!】

【Am I the only one who thinks the Cotton-Joint Bug's new form is ugly?】

【B-rank beast-tamer teaches you online how to get into Nansheng Beast-Taming University.】

【Beast-taming newbie wants to ask, is it okay to contract a Little Dragon as the first pet beast?】

Her gaze stopped on the last post.

*No humanity. *

The first pet beast, and they were already thinking about contracting a Dragon-element one, and they even posted to ask others if it was okay?

The power of Dragon-element pet beasts was known to all.

Excluding individual extremely rare pet beasts, just from an attribute perspective, Dragon-element pet beasts were absolutely the most expensive among all pet beasts.

Anyone without a mine at home absolutely couldn't afford it.

Even if someone gritted their teeth and bought one, they couldn't raise it. Dragon-element pet beasts had long evolutionary cycles; you might feed it well for several years and it still might not evolve once to become an intermediate pet beast.

If Qiao Sang were to answer, it would naturally be "no."

Absolutely not!

But if there really was a Dragon-element pet beast in front of Qiao Sang waiting for her to contract it.

Then, actually, it wasn't that absolute...

Qiao Sang looked down, no longer paying attention to the post that made her heart ache.

【New beast-tamer strongly recommends the Sand-Digging Mouse!】

There were different voices in the comment section.

"The OP is afraid they haven't let the Sand-Digging Mouse sleep at night; friendly reminder, it grinds its teeth!"

"Why didn't the person above remind the OP what it uses to grind its teeth?"

"My White Sand Fox refuses to accept this."

"The Deep-Fur Turtle requests to fight."

Beast-taming civilization had developed to the present, and those suitable for new beast-tamers as pet beasts had long been summarized.

Little Fat Pigeon, White Sand Fox, Short-Tailed Snake, Sand-Digging Mouse, Deep-Fur Turtle.

These five types of pet beasts were moderately priced, affordable for most families, and had gentle temperaments.

If cultivated well, there was absolutely no problem in evolving to the third stage to become a General-rank pet beast.

Most of the posts Qiao Sang saw from new beast-tamers asking about pet beasts were about these five types.

The first pet beast her mother contracted was a Little Fat Pigeon, and the Fat House Pigeon was its evolutionary form.

As a Flying-element pet beast, because of its fat body, it basically flew slower than other Flying-element pet beasts.

It became the first choice for new beast-tamers only because it could evolve into a Strong-Unified Flying Owl and become a General-rank pet beast.

The White Sand Fox had strong attack power but weak defense; once hit, it couldn't last long.

Groundhogs are born with the ability to dig holes and prefer to avoid conflict; they generally do not like head-on confrontations.

Although the Deep-Fur Turtle didn't swim like a normal turtle, its defense was still strong.

The White Sand Fox, Sand-Digging Mouse, and Deep-Fur Turtle all belonged to the Earth element, so these three types of pet beasts were often compared.

But the White Sand Fox's appearance crushed the other two, making it basically the first choice for female new beast-tamers.

The Short-Tailed Snake belonged to the Poison element; its teeth were poisonous, and the needle tail was also a dangerous attack weapon, allowing it to possess decent combat power early on.

It was just that a beast-tamer who contracted it would have to go to the hospital if they weren't careful.

Without a strong physical constitution, no new beast-tamer dared to contract it.

Qiao Sang looked for a long time but couldn't decide. These five types of pet beasts each had their own shortcomings, but their affordable price and safe evolutionary plans were undeniable advantages.

In the end, it was still a money issue.

Qiao Sang got up and walked out of the room.

Her mother was sitting on the sofa watching TV.

Qiao Sang said, "Mom, do we have 1 million? I want to buy a Bubble Bell."

"Get out."

"Alright!"

Qiao Sang returned to the room and continued looking at the forum.

【Is it safe for a D-rank beast-tamer to go to the Qipang Forest?】

【Got a Green-Claw Meow on my second beast gamble; everyone come and absorb the luck!】

In fact, besides purchasing pet beasts at the pet base, one could also obtain pet beasts through black markets, beast gambling, the wild, and other channels.

Pet beasts obtained from the black market had unknown origins; as long as you could afford the money, they could find a way to get any kind of pet beast for you.

Beast gambling depended on luck; if you weren't careful, you could lose everything, even your pants.

Going to the wild to find pet beasts to contract was something only done by those whose level had reached at least D-rank beast-tamer.

After all, the possibility of encountering danger in the wild was extremely high, and extraordinary creatures were hard to tame; even if contracted, they weren't easy to cultivate and make obedient.

None of these three channels were things she could do now.

Qiao Sang sighed. Although she had many ideas, her choices were really not many.

8:26 PM.

Qiao Sang closed the computer and looked at the time with surprise.

At this hour, her mother hadn't called her for dinner; she wouldn't really be angry, would she?

She prepared to go to the living room to see. Just as she got up, thinking it wasn't safe, she took a copy of "Beast-Taming History II" from the bookshelf.

Opening the door, the living room lights weren't on; it was pitch black.

Her mother wasn't there.

Qiao Sang pondered for a moment, confirming her mother wasn't in the bedroom either.

She turned on the living room lights, casually threw "Beast-Taming History II" on the sofa, and took a box of matcha ice cream from the refrigerator.

Just as she turned on the TV and sat cross-legged.

"Click."

The door opened.

Qiao Sang turned her head, eyes meeting.

"..."

There was a brief silence in the air.

"Come over and eat." Her mother raised an eyebrow and placed the food she had bought on the dining table.

So she had gone out to buy food...

"Coming." Qiao Sang looked at the matcha ice cream she had only taken one bite of, and adhering to the principle of not wasting, she took another bite.

"Mom, why did you go out to buy food today?" Qiao Sang came to the dining table.

"Went out for something, didn't have time to cook, so I bought it on the way," her mother said.

Qiao Sang asked, "What was it?"

Her mother was silent for a moment. "Sang Sang, let's move house."

Qiao Sang was stunned, her eating motion stopped. She asked in confusion, "Why move house?"

As the provincial capital of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou's housing prices were ridiculously expensive.

This house was originally bought by her father's family as a wedding house when housing prices weren't so expensive.

Although Qingcheng Jiayuan, where they lived now, wasn't in a very expensive area of Hangzhou, the location was good, and nearby schools and subways were close; it still cost over 50,000 per square meter.

Her mother ate a bite of food, waited until she swallowed, looked at Qiao Sang, and after a while said, "I went out and asked an agent. Our house is 133 square meters, and the current market price is about 53,000 per square meter, so it can sell for over 7 million Alliance coins."

"I've considered it. We can buy a smaller house, pay a down payment first, and the extra money can be used to buy you a Bubble Bell, and there will still be quite a bit left."

"And your mother can still earn money. Besides moving to a smaller house, nothing else will change."

Qiao Sang was dumbfounded.

Only a few hours had passed, and her mother had made such a big decision without a sound.

"Mom..." she murmured, wanting to say something.

Her mother interrupted her directly. "Although your grades aren't good, you awakened autonomously; your talent is there."

"Although our family isn't particularly wealthy, Mom can still get you the kind of pet beast you want."

"As long as you promise me that you won't be like you were with your studies, fishing for three days and drying nets for two, and that you'll cultivate it well."

Ye Xiangting didn't originally have this idea, but her daughter had proposed wanting a Psychic-element pet beast.

Her daughter wasn't very good at studying, but being able to awaken autonomously showed she really had talent in beast-taming.

Their family had never had a child who awakened autonomously.

Since that was the case, buying a pet beast that was expensive but had good potential, and that she liked, was nothing.

This was what she, as a mother, should do.

Qiao Sang couldn't describe the feeling in her heart; she only knew she wanted to eat the unfinished matcha ice cream to soothe the heat in her heart.

She looked into her mother's eyes and smiled. "Mom, you said it yourself, I awakened autonomously; my talent is here, I can cultivate any kind of pet beast."

"I was just talking; I don't really want to contract any Bubble Bell. You must not sell the house."

Her mother stood up and poured a glass of water. After a while, "I know you want a Bubble Bell, you are autono..."

Qiao Sang didn't let her finish. She said seriously, "I researched for an afternoon and evening and think the Fire-Tooth Dog is very good. I want it."

The Bubble Bell's attribute was Psychic, which was naturally very good.

There were also Dragon-element, Fairy-element, and Ghost-element pet beasts that were all very good.

But Qiao Sang just felt they were rare and powerful, not that she *had* to have them.

Just like some people liked to brag, wanting a divine beast at the start.

Having a pet beast of one's own within one's own capabilities.

That was what she wanted. ===== CHAPTER 4 =====