Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Gao Peng placed his bowl of fish soup on the dining table. He turned around and went back to the kitchen to get chopsticks.
When he came out from the kitchen, he saw a white figure standing beside the bowl, pecking at it. When Flamy saw Gao Peng had returned it quickly flapped its wings and flew away.
Gao Peng was speechless. Didn’t Flamy say that it didn’t want to eat just now?
Gao Peng walked to the dining table, sat down, and used the chopsticks to stir the bowl. His eyes widened. Why was there only soup in his bowl? Where did the fish head go? The yam? His side dishes?
“You jerk!”
In the end, Gao Peng used the leftover soup as broth for a bowl of noodles. After he finished eating he did the dishes and cleaned the stove. He switched on his computer to look at the news and browse forums.
Suddenly he felt very angry. It was a sort of anger that he had never felt before.
In TV was a guy riding a spider who liked to make other people wear green hats. Someone realized that he was the strongest of the eight contenders who challenged Commander tier familiars in the Chang’an City exam. This aggravated the situation even more.
Almost immediately, forums were flooded by topics that discussing this event. The news even reached some of the neighboring cities.
“I’m stunned. A beautiful female journalist had to wear a green hat while on the street. What kind of situation is this?”
“The spider-riding guy has these kinds of interests? Unbelievable!”
Gao Peng found such topic titles everywhere.
He felt annoyed and wanted to beat up the people who wrote such things. This was too much! Fortunately, they were just news headlines.
But wait- one of the websites had a video.
Gao Peng opened the video by Chang’an TV Station. A female reporter was running with a microphone. The cameraman was quite good; there wasn’t any shaking throughout the whole video.
Gao Peng saw himself.
That eyes, that nose, that eyebrow. He clicked his tongue and was quite amazed at how good the cameraman was at getting the right angles. Gao Peng wanted to give him a thumbs up.
Afterward, he saw himself rejecting the interview. He left, looking very cool.
The video finally reached the most important part as a green jellyfish floated over. It lowered down from the sky like a beam of light and fell on the female journalist’s head.
In the video, the female journalist’s expression started to change. It was extremely entertaining. Her trembling hands touched her head, and the moist texture almost made her collapse.
The best line in the video was then said.
“What is on my head?”
“A crown.”
This sentence had been spoofed by countless people.
“Guan Yu, what is that on your head?”
“Brother, that is power.”
…
It was like the face-change show in Sichuan opera. From red to white, then from white to cyan, and finally from cyan to black.
In order to maintain her image, the female journalist squeezed out a smile. She hurriedly rushed up to Gao Peng.
The journalist received a nickname: Queen of the Crown.
Gao Peng let out a sigh. This was just… He apologized to the female journalist in his heart. He turned off the web page without hesitation. He was scared that he would feel more guilty the more he looked at it.
…
After Dumby was promoted to the Commander tier, Gao Peng felt that there was something new in his body. He was very familiar with this feeling; he felt the same thing when Dumby got the Shifting Constellations ability.
He closed his eyes. Gao Peng summoned his Blood Contract within his own consciousness.
Within the darkness of his consciousness appeared five shadows in the shape of his five familiars. Gao Peng only opened his eyes when he finished checking something, and wore an odd expression on his face.
Some familiars will gain new life-saving abilities once they were promoted to the Commander tier. Every time a familiar got promoted to the Commander tier, Lord tier, and Emperor tier, it would gain new life-saving abilities.
The later their stages, the stronger their life-saving abilities.
A message was received in the Blood Contract.
“Battles should be handled by the familiars. Monster trainers should just hide behind the familiars and not interfere with the fight.”
Gao Peng had an odd expression on his face.
Monster trainers was a profession that had been handled down by the previous generation. Were there monster trainers in other places?
Gao Peng thought about it for a while and felt that this was a question that was too distant from him. It was as if a commoner worrying about when the sky was going to fall.
His new life-saving ability was “Elemental Barrier.” The ability consumes the energy of his own familiar and then transform it into a barrier to protect himself. It wasn’t a rare ability. After all, Gao Peng remembered that he saw it being used in the first round of his exam.
These life-saving abilities were branded in the depths of one’s soul. There was no way to teach these moves to other people.
All the Commander tier monster trainers did not leak out any info regarding this. They all had a tacit understanding to keep it a secret. They only discussed it amongst themselves.
Gao Peng suddenly thought about Shifting Constellations, an ability thought to him by Uncle Liu.
He looked very serious. Only now did he know of the importance of Shifting Constellations
People would definitely put their attention on him if they found out he had an unrestricted life-saving ability.
Only know did Gao Peng understand why Uncle Liu wanted him to keep it a secret. Otherwise, even those kids who didn’t have Commander tier familiars would suddenly have a life-saving ability. The stronger monster trainers who have younger family members would be tempted to give the ability to their relatives. After all, who doesn’t have a few youngsters they want to protect?
Fortunately, Gao Peng did not have a cheeky personality. He wouldn’t have the urge to do things that adults told him not to do.
Because it was during the Monster Trainer College Entrance Examination, almost all the discussion online was about monster trainers.
Monster trainers were always popular. With all the hype surrounding the exam, it would definitely get the attention of everyone.
Most of the battles by the monster trainers’ familiars were recorded and uploaded to the internet. Gao Peng watched all of them with keen interest and pleasure.
They were much more entertaining than any cartoons. It was because of what he saw were real. Through the data frame, Gao Peng was able to look at the familiars and monsters’ attributes.
Although there were no special effects, these battles felt sincere and real.
After watching the videos for a while, Gao Peng closed his laptop.
He got up and called to the familiars that were taking a nap in the living room, “That’s enough. You guys should exercise after filling your stomachs. Otherwise, you guys will turn out like Stripey!”
Stripey, “???”
After taking out the familiars out to train, Gao Peng went and sat in the back garden. He switched on his laptop and poured himself some chrysanthemum tea.
Da Zi and Stripey grouped together to fight against Dumby in a mock battle. The three familiars were bunched up together. It was a vigorous battle.
Dumby stored up a lot of his energy so that he could be the sparring partner for Da Zi and Stripey.
On the other side, it was time for Gao Peng’s favorite training exercise. Exercise to improve Silly’s courage.
Silly was tied to the tree by a small rope.
Just a short distance from Silly was Flamy. Flamy’s wings were flapping continuously, and its body burst forward. Its strong beak shot out like a sword. Every time it hit the tree it left a deep scar.
As the training went on, Flamy’s beak started to show small stripes of blood.
Gao Peng sighed. Flamy’s heart was full of hatred. All its hard work was so that it could one day avenge his mother.
Silly was scared by Flamy’s fervor. It hid underneath a tree and looked at Flamy, trembling.