Chapter 550

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Main Character:

Shen Yao

Xiao Shan shook his mountain-like body, causing the surrounding terrain to shake with him.

Hearing the commotion from afar, the pet beasts all buried their heads and ran out; the big ones had stayed on their territory long enough, and just because pet beasts were wild didn't mean they were stupid—they now knew the instinct to escape for their lives, and sure enough, they vanished in a puff of smoke.

Shen Yao and Xiao Guai stayed at a distance; both human and beast understood that this was the most critical time for Xiao Shan's advancement. Xiao Guai turned to her Owner and meowed once, stretched her limbs, then leaped up and vanished into the space filled with white mist.

This was to stop other bold wild pet beasts from interfering with Xiao Shan's advancement; after all, Xiao Shan's safety was the top priority.

Shen Yao instructed the system to monitor the environment around Xiao Shan from all directions without blind spots, striving to coordinate with Xiao Guai to ensure Xiao Shan's advancement went smoothly.

System:...

Several semi-transparent screens appeared in Shen Yao's field of vision; no one but her could see anything. The content on the screens was easy to guess, covering six directions—up, down, left, right, front, and back—all showing Xiao Shan's visual feed.

'System, well done.'

Shen Yao was satisfied with the system's compliance, especially since she was still some distance from Xiao Shan and couldn't see clearly with the naked eye, so she really needed such a high-tech product.

'Host, a Xuan Tier pet beast advancing to Di Tier takes as little as several days and as many as several months.' The Mist Cloud Turtle had only just shown signs; there was still waiting to do.

'That's what they say, but time flies, and it's been about that long.' Besides, they still needed to watch; just every move and action consumed who knows how much energy.

And once Xiao Shan's advancement ended, they would next focus all efforts on cultivating Xiao Guai's advancement.

Though the path for a Shadow Phantom Cat to advance was several times harder than for a Mist Cloud Turtle, as long as there was a shred of hope, Shen Yao would not choose to give up.

They were pet beasts that had accompanied her for decades; whether out of selfishness or anything else, Shen Yao hoped Xiao Shan and Xiao Guai would live long and not waste their contract.

Taking a deep breath, Shen Yao waved her hand to let the system go busy on its own, while she fixed her gaze on the several screens before her; the mist inside the screens began to churn and roll, making Xiao Shan's body faintly visible.

Suddenly, Xiao Shan raised his head and let out a long howl to the sky, shaking the surrounding mist into even denser movement. Many flying insects, birds, and beasts on the horizon fled in panic, and this originally quiet and peaceful wild dense forest gradually became lively.

One day, two days, three days...

The mist around Xiao Shan moved at a very strange frequency without cease, and at the same time, this place became crisis-ridden because of Xiao Shan's occasional roars.

During this period, official personnel did come to inspect, and under Shen Yao's serious explanation, they were very understanding, but considering it was the wilderness, they still set up a relatively safe warning line.

With this warning line, Beast Tamers who were generally bold and meticulous or simply wanted a chance encounter no longer came in; after all, warning lines differed, and that bright yellow line was glaring enough to see—it represented the hope of each pet beast's advancement. Small disturbances were nothing, but once someone's pet beast advancement was delayed, it was a sign of a deadly feud.

Who didn't know that in the Beast Tamer world, a big fist was the hard truth that got you around? Offending the lofty Beast Tamers (colleagues) meant being careful that no one would want to save you if you encountered danger in the wilderness.

The wild pet beasts in the dense forest had mostly run away, and the Beast Tamers outside wouldn't barge in; for this, Shen Yao had more energy to focus on Xiao Shan.

When time came to the seventh day, the mist originally surrounding Xiao Shan dispersed, and a red light slowly enveloped the area around Xiao Shan.

The red light shield was dazzling, like a semi-transparent light shield, directly wrapping Xiao Shan's entire body and constantly flashing bright and dark lights.

This was the scene of finishing the prelude and formally entering advancement.

Shen Yao immediately perked up, her eyes constantly fixed on the several screens, occasionally summoning the system to ask a few questions, fearing that Xiao Shan's side would go poorly and cause problems in the advancement process.

Back and forth, the system was also infected by the Host with a bit of nervous emotion, constantly scanning and judging Xiao Shan's big figure back and forth.

Time came to the tenth day; the red light wrapping Xiao Shan became heavy, and from afar it looked like a thick blood cocoon, alternating bright and dark, more like a cocoon breathing on its own.

Hiss

Was this the necessary path of advancement? Even with prior understanding, it still felt strange.

Looking through the data on her phone, much of it was related experience she had asked Li Suyan about, constantly looking up and down to compare, finally exhaling, 'Roughly it's still safe.'

Though she was a bit confused, the records did mention this phenomenon, saying that pet beasts were returning to simplicity and truth, and through forming a 'blood cocoon' to purify their bloodline, they could increase the possibility of successful advancement.

Time came to the fifteenth day, as if between the entire mountain forest only that blood cocoon remained, floating in the surrounding clouds and mist which had long since dispersed at some unknown time; Shen Yao didn't even need the system's help to see with her own eyes that blood cocoon that seemed to want to draw the surrounding area in.

From prosperity to decline, when extremes are reached, things turn for the better

When the blood cocoon wrapping Xiao Shan became concentrated to a certain degree, it quickly weakened; this wasn't because something was wrong with the blood cocoon, but because Xiao Shan reabsorbed it, and the tall and imposing Xiao Shan's body reappeared in Shen Yao's sight.

Time came to the twentieth day; the blood cocoon had long since vanished without a trace, leaving only a layer of faint red light, and the dispersed clouds and mist gathered again, constantly rolling around Xiao Shan's body.

The system jumped out again to chatter to Shen Yao, the main idea being that advancement had reached the middle-to-late stage; if nothing unexpected happened, once advancement ended, they could become genuine Di Tier Beast Tamers.

'If I become a Di Tier Beast Tamer, it will benefit both the Shen Family's business and the two children in Jing Shi.'

For Xuan Tier Beast Tamers, families with power and influence piling up resources were still quite confident they could achieve it, but going further up wasn't that simple.

Xinxin and Mimi had been destined Xuan Tier Beast Tamers from the start of their contract; their future achievements would be at least Di Tier Beast Tamers at the bottom.

If they could go up another step, even Heaven Tier or Saint Tier wasn't impossible to daydream about.

Part of the reason Shen Yao worked hard to climb up was to live well herself, and another part was to provide assistance for the two children, thereby increasing her mission completion rate in this task world, striving to get rich rewards and go to the next task world.

After her gaze dispersed and gathered again, Shen Yao stared at Xiao Shan's figure not far away, pondered for a moment, then summoned Xiao Guai back through the star array.

After human and beast had been separated for a while, the fur on Xiao Guai's body was no longer as neat as before, it was ruffled and even clumped together in places.

Shen Yao was helpless and could only manually smooth it out, while also gesturing that Xiao Guai could leave this area to hunt and fill her belly; there were no traces of wild pet beasts left in the area before her eyes, and previously Xiao Guai had helped Xiao Shan block disturbers, completely unable to move around freely.

Right now Xiao Shan's side was about to enter the final stage; even if something happened, he could rely on himself to handle it, so Xiao Guai didn't need to continue lingering here.

'Go, don't run too far.'

Patting Xiao Guai's round big head, Shen Yao stood up and moved her body, while Xiao Guai herself meowed once and left in the opposite direction from where Xiao Shan was staying.

Once Xiao Guai left like that, by the time she returned, more than three days would have passed.

Shen Yao had food reserves and wouldn't starve herself, but Xiao Guai still brought back fresh meat for her; even though Shen Yao's constitution couldn't eat too much.

Ha

Opening her beast mouth, Xiao Guai flicked her tail, jumped up onto a tree herself, and lay down.

The sound of purring arose; presumably it had been too hard during this period. Once Xiao Shan successfully completed his advancement, they would return to Yang City to rest for a while.

After simply arranging a few things in her mind, Shen Yao then took out a dagger to simply handle the somewhat bloody meat in her hand, cut a few pieces, roasted them, and filled her belly.

Mm

The taste was still very good; Shen Yao put the rest away in her space after handling them, then entered the tent herself and closed her eyes to rest.

Time arrived at the thirtieth day

A whole month of advancement — Xiao Shan's evolution this time was extremely perfect.

Beautiful patterns densely covered the entire surface of the turtle shell, and its four limbs were thick and sturdy; even after shrinking it still possessed an extremely strong sense of oppression.

Earth Tier Pet Beast — Sky-Splitting Turtle

The earthy yellow had turned silver-white, even more eye-catching than before; Shen Yao's eyes brightened, clearly very satisfied with Xiao Shan's advancement results.

"Guji guji"

Xiao Shan lay on Shen Yao's palm, mouth open, recounting its situation.

Earth Tier Pet Beasts and Xuan Tier Pet Beasts — don't look at them being only one rank apart; in reality, whether it's their respective strength or anything else, they are worlds apart.

Xiao Shan currently felt quite good about itself, even boasting shamelessly that it didn't need to ride the Peng Bird back to Yang City; it could carry its owner away directly, and its travel speed was very fast — flying through the heavens and burrowing through the earth both worked.

"No rush, return to the city and rest for a while first; wait until you've mastered your skills before arranging other matters."

Shen Yao raised her hand and stroked Xiao Shan's exquisite turtle shell, then woke Xiao Guai on the tree, packed up the tent and the items scattered around, and only then walked leisurely toward the outside.

The warning line set up earlier was still there; Shen Yao simply helped clear it manually. Of course, she had already contacted the officials one step ahead; just wait until returning to the city to register, and she could receive the rewards due an Earth Tier Beast Tamer at the same time as obtaining her formal identity.

…………

"Hey, heard? A pet beast successfully advanced in the wild."

"Just these past few days, and it's an Earth Tier pet beast; the officials all know."

"Really enviable — that's an Earth Tier Beast Tamer, can make money without doing anything."

"……"

The days after registration were a bit boring; Shen Yao stayed in a hotel and couldn't sit still, so she took Xiao Shan and Xiao Guai to find a training hall for skill training.

Didn't expect to hear people discussing animatedly right after entering; thinking carefully, it actually had some connection to herself.

After all, Tiannan City — not huge if you say it's huge, not small if you say it's small; Earth Tier pet beasts aren't something you see often. Now such a big event suddenly appeared, instantly detonating the entire city's public opinion.

However, Shen Yao's appearance and looks hadn't been exposed, and she hadn't been in Tiannan City long. Calmly letting the staff open a training room, Shen Yao took Xiao Shan and Xiao Guai inside — no one could imagine that the cute little turtle perched on the girl's shoulder was the very beast that had just advanced to Earth Tier.

The training room wasn't large; Xiao Shan could only shrink its body as much as possible and practice continuously.

Xiao Guai on the side would occasionally cooperate, but most of the time it just lay on the ground resting — after all, it's a feline animal; its main active time is at night, daytime is all for catching up on sleep.

Busy until the sky color gradually darkened, Shen Yao took Xiao Shan and Xiao Guai and left the training hall, returning to her temporary residence in Tiannan City.

The phone in her hand rang; a familiar tone appeared — family far away in Yang City, saying Shen Yao had been away from home for a while and should go back for a visit.

Shen Yao had always intended to return to Yang City, but not now; she still needed to make a trip to Jing City to have a face-to-face exchange with Li Suyan, preferably securing a position for herself in Jing City.

People go toward high places, water flows toward low places.

Considering Xinxin and Mimi's situations, the focus of Shen Yao's future life would definitely be placed in Jing City.

The Shen Family in Yang City, if nothing unexpected happens, would also follow her arrangements.

Temporarily burying these in her heart without mentioning them, Shen Yao asked Shen Cheng and Shen Ying about the Shen couple's physical condition and the family business; learning everything was fine with nothing bad happening, she instructed Shen Cheng and Shen Ying not to be impulsive, to advance steadily and securely.

Advance steadily and securely?

The two of course chose to listen to their elder sister, but they aren't solitary individuals; the small family's complaints come year after year, and will always generate different thoughts.

Such thoughts won't affect any concrete situation in the short term, but stretched over time, they will make people develop strange psychology.

The most direct example is this time Shen Yao planned to take people to Jing City to develop, incidentally relocating the entire Shen Family business (which could also be called the enterprise she founded) there — result: Shen Cheng and Shen Ying refused.

Both expressed that life in Yang City was quite good; they didn't want to go to great trouble to leave.

The Shen couple had no other ideas, saying they'd listen to all of Shen Yao's arrangements.

Shen Yao: ……

Shen Yao didn't ask anything, only respected Shen Cheng and Shen Ying's own decisions, handled the handover of personal connections well, then departed with the Shen couple.

"Host, their petty thoughts are quite heavy."

Shen Cheng and Shen Ying both have their own petty thoughts; it's not that they don't want to cling to Shen Yao's thigh, but they feel clinging to a thigh isn't as cost-effective as developing on their own.

The simplest is Yang City's personal connections — after Shen Yao left, they were all handed to the two of them; they can easily leverage connections to rise and develop. But in Jing City? They can only continue relying on Shen Yao to live; under someone else's roof, their own confidence is also insufficient.

Shen Cheng and Shen Ying aren't necessarily truly wanting to separate ways with Shen Yao, but their desire to establish their own household is still not to be too obvious.

The system's words now are putting eye drops on Shen Yao, telling the host that her younger brother and sister have petty thoughts; fearing future contact will slowly decrease, and after a few generations of inheritance, they'll only be ordinary relatives.

"As long as they don't cross the bottom line, let them be."

Shen Yao isn't their biological mother; impossible to cover every aspect and give pointers. Shen Cheng and Shen Ying wanting to try on their own isn't a bad thing — just depends on what level they can achieve.