Chapter 67: Chapter 67: It’s Enough That I Trust You
"Is this spot okay? It might be a little inconvenient to go any further."
"This is far enough. We don’t need to go any deeper. Thanks, Senior Brother Piao!"
The taxi pulled up to the entrance of Wudu New Village. Su Zhi got out, said his goodbyes, and thought to himself, ’Senior Brother Piao really is a good person.’
’—If he didn’t hound me every single day to revise my Skill progression, that is...’
Seeing *Yu Bao’s Custom Skill Route 7.133 (Annotated)* pop up on his phone, Su Zhi sighed. He knew he was in for another long night.
’Damn it...’
’Didn’t I already grind this out yesterday? Why do I have to do it again today?!’
Yu Bao sat beside him, head held high, one paw propped thoughtfully under its chin in a human-like pose. It was hard to tell what it was thinking.
Seeing the little guy, who clearly wasn’t that smart, looking so contemplative, Su Zhi chuckled softly. "Let’s head back. It’s getting late."
’I left at three in the afternoon and didn’t even fight that many matches, yet in the blink of an eye, it’s already past ten p.m.’
’Looks like that match against Peng Kai took a long time. We were both just so focused that we completely lost track of time.’
"If we run into them again tomorrow, we have to seize the opportunity!"
Su Zhi instructed Yu Bao, "Just treat it as a simulation for our battle against Fang Yuan."
In fact, the White Flame Battle Spirit was the rare variant of the Nether Flame Spirit.
Nether Flame Spirits are a social race of Pet Beasts, and those that frequently battle to defend their kind can evolve into White Flame Battle Spirits.
Others manually trigger the transformation by putting their contracted Nether Flame Spirit through intensive battle training over a short period.
The two Pet Beasts share a common origin, and many of their Skills have much in common.
If Yu Bao could battle Diya a lot, then it would have more confidence when facing 004 in the future!
"ARF! ARF!"
Yu Bao wagged its tail, full of fighting spirit.
Su Zhi smiled softly and took Yu Bao home.
It was currently the time when high schools let out, so there were quite a lot of students in Wudu New Village, and many stalls aimed specifically at students were open.
Su Zhi bought a roasted sausage from a small shop, took the first bite himself, and passed the rest to Yu Bao.
He knew Yu Bao had given its spicy strips to Diya and hadn’t eaten much itself.
"Nyam~" Yu Bao gently bit onto the sausage. Su Zhi then pulled out the skewer, and the entire sausage slid into the little dog’s mouth.
With its mouth full, Yu Bao mumbled an indistinct reminder to Su Zhi, telling him not to forget about allocating the Points.
"Don’t worry, I won’t forget about you."
Su Zhi laughed heartily.
Speaking of allocating Points, he was still quite excited.
As of today, Su Zhi had obtained a total of 0.14 Points!
Of that, 0.05 was from Yu Bao’s battle against Xiaoyue yesterday.
’Sparring with all those players with names like "Evil God Whatever" or "Immortal Emperor So-and-So" hadn’t yielded many Points at all. After all, Yu Bao felt absolutely no pressure...’
’Sometimes I even have to intentionally go easy on them, letting myself fall behind just to make it feel like a tiny bit of a challenge...’
The Points gained this afternoon came mainly from the sparring session with Peng Kai, a total of 0.06 Points—even more than from the match against Xiaoyue.
’This isn’t just latching onto a big shot!’
’This is latching onto a personal Point-dispensing machine!’
Su Zhi walked on, pondering how to use these Points. Just as he was about to reach his apartment building... Su Zhi found he couldn’t take another step.
The moonlight flowed like water before the entrance to the building.
A girl stood to one side in the shadows, her azure eyes blinking like stars. Her small mouth was slightly pouted, her nose was crinkled, and her gaze was fixed intently on Su Zhi.
"Why weren’t you home? Where did you run off to?"
Shao Ya asked, a little anxiously.
"...I went to Fengyun Arena. Fought a few Pet Beast Battles."
Su Zhi didn’t hide it. "Yu Bao and I need a lot of real combat experience. The regular battle arenas don’t get much traffic, and most people go with their own partners anyway."
"Hmph." Shao Ya puffed out her cheeks.
She had heard her dad mention Fengyun Arena. To put it bluntly, it was for underground matches.
’All sorts of people go there. It’s nothing like school...’
Su Zhi continued, "But don’t worry, my senior who’s helping me train goes with me. He’s an Advanced Tier Beast Tamer. I’m safe with him around."
’Truth be told, I’m perfectly safe even without him...’
"I know, I know."
Shao Ya pretended not to care and looked away, but she immediately turned back, her delicate brows furrowed.
"Well, you still can’t get carried away! Don’t provoke people you shouldn’t, leave as soon as you’re done sparring, and just focus on getting combat experience. Try not to talk to strangers, don’t gamble or drink, and stick close to your senior. Don’t wander off by yourself..."
’Provoked someone I shouldn’t have... check. Talked to a stranger... check. Gambled... check.’
As Shao Ya was still nagging, Su Zhi suddenly burst out laughing. "You sound like my mom."
The girl used her slender fingers to adjust his collar, her cheeks puffed out slightly.
"Then you’d better listen to your mother, or else..."
"Or else you’ll whip me?"
"In your dreams. A punch is more like it."
Yu Bao looked left and right but didn’t see its Big Brother Xiaoyue. It tilted its head at Shao Ya curiously.
Shao Ya covered her mouth and giggled. "Xiaoyue couldn’t find you and figured you must be secretly grinding, cooped up at home training hard. He refused to come down no matter what."
Yu Bao nodded in sudden realization.
’But I was going back to grind anyway, so it’s no big deal.’
’Oh, my foolish big brother~’
"Alright, you should go back now. Eat, wash up, get some sleep. Tomorrow you have to... oh, right, you don’t have school anyway..."
Shao Ya sighed softly, then tilted her head with a smile.
"I’ll be waiting for you to come back to school."
"Yeah."
Su Zhi blinked. "I thought... when you heard I was participating in underground matches, you’d chew me out first."
"You have your own ideas, and you’re acting on them. It’s enough for me to believe in you."
The girl turned, her waterfall of long white hair dancing in her wake, sweeping through the bright moonlight.
"I’m heading back! See you!"
"Yeah, see you back at school."
Su Zhi watched the bright white hair disappear into the distance, appearing and disappearing in the window of each floor before finally stopping on the fifth.
Once all the voice-activated lights had gone out one by one, Su Zhi took Yu Bao home.
·
"Xiaoshu, Xiaoya was just here looking for you. What were you up to this afternoon?"
"I was out training with my senior, preparing for the city tournament."
"Oh, okay. You haven’t eaten, have you? There are some steamed dumplings your dad made in the electric pan. Pork and corn filling. You can eat them after you heat them up!"
"Got it. You can go to bed."
Seeing the light from under the bedroom door go out, Su Zhi smiled and quietly changed his clothes and shoes.
Yu Bao padded into the dining room, BLING BLING, and soon the sound of it munching on its pet food could be heard.
Su Zhi also went to eat the steamed dumplings—they were still warm, so there was no need to reheat them.
Eating while watching classic matches, writing a summary from memory after the meal, and then revising the skill framework—this was Su Zhi’s daily routine.
After eating, Yu Bao came over to whisper to Su Zhi, "Woof woof..."
Actually, even though Xiaoyue went all out that day, it still didn’t beat him. So, to keep its Big Brother Xiaoyue from getting sad, Yu Bao pretended to think he hadn’t gone all out...
Su Zhi chuckled softly. "Maybe you should change your name to Monkey-Bao. You’re too clever for your own good."
Yu Bao scratched its head, embarrassed.
"Oh right, I forgot to allocate your Points!"
Su Zhi rubbed his hands together. "Where do you want to put them this time?"
"Woof!" *I want to try putting it all into Intelligence!*
Yu Bao had never experienced the feeling of having its Intelligence maxed out all at once and wagged its tail in anticipation.
"Alright."
Su Zhi grabbed Yu Bao’s doggy head and began to rub it vigorously...
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