Beast Taming: Starting From Zero

Chapter 230: I'm Innocent

"A month ago, actually, but I wanted to buy a better quality grass-type evolution stone, so I delayed until now." Bai Yunmiao said, scratching her head with an embarrassed smile.

No wonder... Qiao Sang understood.

The higher the quality of the evolution stone, the greater the energy level in the pet after evolution, giving it an advantage over other pets of the same level.

Many beast tamers spend a lot of time selecting the perfect evolution stone.

"By the way, want to have a match with me?" Qiao Sang asked, recalling Yabao’s words.

"Yap!"

Yabao looked at the newly evolved Sweet Vine with a face full of fighting spirit.

"Sweet…"

Feeling Yabao’s intense gaze, Sweet Vine silently took a step back and hid behind its beast tamer.

"No way, no way! Your reputation has spread; everyone knows you're the school’s fearsome challenger. The forum on our province's high school website still has your name up there." Bai Yunmiao quickly shook his head, terrified.

Qiao Sang was stunned. "The Zhejiang Province high school forum?"

"Yeah, it's the main forum for all high schools in the province. Practically every student in the province goes there to chat. Yesterday, someone from your school even argued with Litan High School in Hanwen City." Bai Yunmiao said.

"Why were they arguing?" Qiao Sang asked.

"All because of you." Bai Yunmiao replied.

"Yesterday, someone from your school posted that there’s a super-genius freshman who could crush Litan High School, telling them to expect defeat in this year’s National Campus Beast Mastering League."

"Someone from Litan High School saw the post, and they started arguing. The post became really popular and is probably still on the front page."

Qiao Sang felt a headache coming on.

"Did they mention my name?"

Bai Yunmiao chuckled.

"Of course! Otherwise, how would I know you're the fierce challenger taking on the entire school?"

Qiao Sang couldn't help but explain, "I didn’t challenge the whole school, just over 200 people."

Bai Yunmiao: ...

Only 200 people? Do you even hear yourself?!

Keeping a polite smile, Bai Yunmiao said, "That's still impressive."

Since she learned that Qiao Sang not only contracted with a Treasure-Seeking Ghost but also evolved Fire Fang Dog into a brand-new form, she wasn’t surprised by anything about this prodigy.

Qiao Sang sighed.

"Does this mean everyone from other schools knows my information too?"

"Don't worry too much about getting targeted in the league because of your fame." Bai Yunmiao comforted her.

"People love to brag on the forum. Information is half-true, half-false. Yesterday, someone claimed their school has a student who contracted a high-level beast as their first pet."

Qiao Sang actually thought that might be possible.

If a high-level beast is willing, a novice beast tamer can contract it, even if there's a risk of backlash. It’s happened before, as reported on the news.

Some aging beast tamers, before passing away, might consider passing their beasts on to the next generation.

However, this also depends on the beast's consent. Without the original tamer’s contract, no one can force the beast to agree.

In the end, it’s usually beast tamers with little hope in the field who do this. Ambitious tamers tend to want their pets to grow alongside them, rather than inheriting one.

After saying goodbye, Yabao watched Sweet Vine’s retreating figure with a melancholy expression.

Seeing this, Qiao Sang said, "You don’t need to fight to get stronger. How about this? Let’s challenge ourselves to fly home today!"

The idea of training Yabao was secondary; her main thought was getting up into the sky.

Now that she knew how much energy Yabao had, she actually thought about flying.

Flying without a flying-type pet? Just the thought thrilled her!

"Yap!"

Yabao’s eyes sparkled with excitement.

He could do it!

Holding Little Treasure, Qiao Sang climbed onto Yabao’s back and smoothly ascended. From the backpack, Water Luriana poked her head out, eyes widening at the view below.

Once home, Qiao Sang hurried to her room to start her homework.

It was already after 8 p.m., and she hadn’t even begun!

---

11:34 p.m.

In a small alley two blocks from Tianjing Garden, Li Songhai sat on the ground, his expression blank, his skin dotted with mosquito bites.

Anyone with trypophobia would probably get chills just looking at him.

Just then, footsteps approached, and Li Songhai quickly peeked out.

Then he saw two white, bare legs.

He froze, instinctively looking up.

"Ah! Pervert!"

The woman clutched her skirt and took several steps back in fright. Summoning her pet, she shouted, "Desert Tail Fox, get him!"

Before Li Songhai could even defend himself, the fox’s tail glowed white and lashed at him.

"I'm innocent!!!"

---

Meanwhile, Qiao Sang, freshly showered, leaned against her headboard with her laptop on her knees.

As soon as she logged into Weibo, she was stunned by the follower count on her account.

Over three million followers!

She hadn’t posted anything other than Yabao’s photo modeling sunglasses.

Checking the comments, she saw they were all discussing Yabao.

[Is this the account of the tamer with the Flame Hound?]

[Not much here. I just want to confirm if it’s true that Flame Hound also has psychic abilities.]

[Gotta admit, Flame Hound is really cool!]

[I heard the tamer of Flame Hound is still in high school.]

[Why hasn't the Alliance published the evolution method for Flame Hound yet?]

[I'll pay one million if you can tell me how to evolve Fire Fang Dog into Flame Hound. If you agree, just ignore this comment.]

No wonder her follower count shot up. Being the only tamer of a Flame Hound, the rise in followers wasn’t surprising.

After posting the photos Song Yuan gave her, she opened the forum Bai Yunmiao mentioned.

#A fierce challenger among our school’s freshmen who took on the entire school#

Seeing the pinned post, Qiao Sang’s heart skipped a beat.

It wasn’t just gossip; they’d actually pinned it…

Clicking in, she saw the post was still being updated, with countless users replying in real time.

[No photos, no videos, just empty words?]

[Just because you don’t have someone like that at Litan High, doesn’t mean our Shengshui High doesn’t. Laughable.]

[Want me to pull up last year’s video of your team competing with ours?]

[The past is the past. This year’s what counts.]

[Shengshui always says this, but we all know the outcome.]

[Don’t kid yourselves; the provincial champion will be from Li De High this year.]

But no one paid attention to Li De High.

[For real, our school's super-genius has two pets, both with advanced skills.]

[Oh, I’m shaking in my boots. All of our Litan High's team members' pets know superior skills.]

[All of Shengshui’s pets know divine skills.]

[Ha.]

[Ha ha.]

Qiao Sang typed: [Ha ha ha.]

After sending those words, she closed her laptop.