Beast Taming: Starting From Zero

Chapter 258: Partial Color Variation

"Xun?"

Little Treasure looked confused when he heard his Beast Master's call.

After a moment, he hurriedly teleported to the full-length mirror in the living room to inspect himself.

The next second, Little Treasure's scream echoed throughout the house.

"Xun!!!"

Two minutes later, in the living room.

"Yap Yap."

Yabao patted the sobbing Xiao Xunbao with his paw, trying to comfort him.

"So you've shrunk after evolving. It's no big deal."

Little Treasure glanced at Yabao, who was now several times bigger than him, and burst into even louder sobs.

How could the difference be this big, even though they both evolved?

"Lu lu."

Beside them, Lubao nodded in agreement.

There was indeed a big difference.

"Xun!"

Qiao Sang, sitting on the sofa, felt a sense of relief watching her three pet beasts interacting.

With Yabao and Lubao comforting Little Treasure, things should be fine.

She took out her phone to search for answers.

Though Little Treasure looked better now than a typical Treasure-Seeking Demon, this wasn’t exactly normal.

It was rare to find someone who had a contract with a Treasure-Seeking Demon in real life, but online, searching for Treasure-Seeking Demon would reveal countless discussions among Beast Masters.

Qiao Sang entered a forum.

She posted: #Why did my Treasure-Seeking Ghost evolve into a smaller-sized Treasure-Seeking Demon, and with a slightly different color?#

In no time, her post received dozens of comments.

[Is this some kind of humble brag?]

[No pics, no proof. Post a photo if it's real.]

[Just from the OP’s ID, you can tell they’re a pro at humble-bragging.]

Humble-bragging?

Qiao Sang was a bit bewildered. What did this have to do with humble-bragging?

As she pondered, the replies kept piling up.

[Maybe the Treasure-Seeking Ghost had malnutrition, so it evolved into a smaller Treasure-Seeking Demon?]

[That’s an honest comment right there.]

[Why are we all here listening to the OP’s flexing session?]

[Come on, don’t you know that everyone online supposedly has a rare-colored pet?]

Rare color?

Qiao Sang froze at those words. She suddenly understood why everyone thought she was humble-bragging, they believed she was showing off Little Treasure’s unique color.

She looked at the sorrowful Little Treasure and quickly shook off that unrealistic idea.

Little Treasure already had psychic powers, if he was also rare-colored, wouldn’t that make him overpowered?!

No way, that’s absolutely impossible!

Qiao Sang typed a response:

[I’m seriously asking. I can guarantee that my Treasure-Seeking Demon isn’t rare-colored. His body is the usual gray for Treasure-Seeking Demon, except the tip of his tail is a different color. Let’s put the color aside; the main issue is his size, I just don’t get it.]

Immediately, a user replied:

[Doesn’t the OP know about partial rare color variations?]

[Whoa, I thought the OP was joking, but now it actually seems legit.]

[If I’m not mistaken, OP’s Treasure-Seeking Demon might be partially rare-colored. Some rare-colored pets can experience energy anomalies, making their evolution outcomes different in size. For instance, Cui Tong’s Gale Horse has only a rare-colored tail but is twice the size of other Gale Horses.]

[Wow, someone actually believes that?]

[User #47 has a good point, but have you considered that OP only noticed the color change after Treasure-Seeking Ghost evolved? This means the color was normal before, and rare-colored pets usually have their traits from birth. It’s unlikely they’d change color only after evolving.]

[Good point, my bad.]

[So the OP is just bragging. Saying their Treasure-Seeking Demon had a different color is one thing, but insisting it’s changed after evolution is a stretch.]

The replies continued, but Qiao Sang didn’t scroll further. Instead, she fixated on User #47’s response and fell into deep thought.

Partial rare color variation...

Previously, she hadn’t considered this possibility. On the one hand, Little Treasure looked just like an ordinary Treasure-Seeking Ghost before evolving.

On the other hand, rare-colored pets are incredibly rare.

Little Treasure already has a psychic attribute. If he also has a rare color, it would be a combination so powerful that even the developers of beast games wouldn’t design such a creature.

But now that she thought about it, Little Treasure’s eye color had always been different from normal Treasure-Seeking Ghosts.

Little Treasure’s eyes are golden, while normal Treasure-Seeking Ghosts have amber eyes.

If this isn’t due to genetics and he was naturally born with rare colors, then everything makes sense.

Since he’s a rare-colored pet, he had a lucky energy mutation, giving him both ghost and psychic attributes.

And because he’s rare-colored, his Treasure-Seeking Demon form evolved smaller than his counterparts.

It all makes sense.

At that moment, Qiao Sang could almost hear her heart racing.

She looked at the still-crying Little Treasure, took a deep breath, pulled out two tissues from the coffee table, and walked over to hand them to him.

"Xun."

Little Treasure looked up at her with teary eyes.

Qiao Sang gently said, “Stop crying. Crying won’t make you grow bigger.”

Little Treasure: ...!

After nearly ten minutes of explanation, Little Treasure finally stopped pouting and returned to his usual self.

"Xun Xun!"

Little Treasure floated over to the full-length mirror and excitedly examined his tail.

Turns out, he’s rare-colored!

No wonder he always felt cooler than other Treasure-Seeking Demon he saw online!

9:15 p.m.

At the Hongying Beast Battle Club.

Wang Yiding stared at the transformed Xiao Xunbao in shock and asked, “Master Qiao, did your Treasure-Seeking Ghost evolve?”

“Yes.”

Qiao Sang smiled, “Just today.”

Wang Yiding was speechless for a moment before muttering, “No wonder it’s you.”

Qiao Sang wasn’t called a pro for nothing. Both of her pets had evolved to intermediate stages, and this Treasure-Seeking Demon was visibly different from regular ones, being noticeably smaller.

If it were anyone else’s Treasure-Seeking Demon, he would’ve suspected stunted growth. But with Qiao Sang, he could only think of one phrase: Good things come in small packages.

“Let’s start the trai-” Qiao Sang was halfway through her sentence when-

“Xun~”

Little Treasure spun around, deliberately showing off his golden tail tip.

Wang Yiding’s attention was immediately drawn to it.

He exclaimed, “Master Qiao, did you dye your Treasure-Seeking Demon’s tail?”

Little Treasure: ...

“It’s getting late. Let’s get started with the training.” Qiao Sang quickly changed the subject.

Little Treasure’s rare color was only partial, not as obvious as other rare-colored pets, making it too complex to explain.

Besides, rare-colored pets are hard to come by in real life.

Several rare pet owners have even complained online that whenever they claim their pets are naturally rare-colored and not dyed, people insist they give their pets a bath to prove it.

When the bath water shows no dye, people then ask which salon the pet visited to get a color job that won’t wash out.

In short, no matter how much they explained, there were still people who doubted whether their pets were truly rare-colored.

Rather than getting into it, it was better to avoid the topic altogether from the start.

Wang Yiding’s goal was to teach Crowned Meow teleportation, so he didn’t mind the change in topic.

This time, Qiao Sang didn’t go sit on the sidelines. Instead, she accompanied Little Treasure and Crowned Meow to the training area.

Once in position, she looked at Little Treasure and said, “Hypnosis.”

“Xun~”

“Crown?”