[Zimeng's Dream: ??? You're not going to tell me Chiying evolved too, are you? My Diandian hasn't even evolved yet!]
[Zimeng's Dream: But it's so cool!]
[Zimeng's Dream: Wait, Liu Yi is riding Chiying and flying in the sky?]
[Green Lamp with Clouds: The photo quality is pretty high. But this angle, was it shot from the ground looking up?]
Liu Yi put down her chopsticks, wiped her mouth, and replied to the messages.
[Yi: Yep, Chiying evolved today in the Dragon Vein Ridge. It's called Moling Dragon now. We just got our High-Altitude Flight Permit, so we can fly in the sky.]
[The Beautiful Master of Cute Shadow: I saw it in a post my cousin just put on Beast Link. He said he was taking pictures from his balcony as usual and happened to catch this.]
[The Beautiful Master of Cute Shadow: Then I clicked on the picture and took a closer look, isn't that Liu Yi, Ziyue, and Chiying?!]
[The Beautiful Master of Cute Shadow: How can both of your pets evolve so quickly?! None of ours have evolved yet!]
[Zimeng's Dream: Sigh, exactly.]
[Green Lamp with Clouds: ...]
[Green Lamp with Clouds: I have something to tell you two.]
[Green Lamp with Clouds: Last night, Candle Spirit also evolved, becoming a Spirit Fire Steward.]
The group chat suddenly fell silent. Liu Yi chuckled, already imagining Baili Jinxuan's and Qi Zimeng's reactions.
[Yi: [Congratulations.jpg]]
[The Beautiful Master of Cute Shadow: [Shadow shocked.jpg]]
[Zimeng's Dream: [Diandian shocked.jpg]]
[Zimeng's Dream: This isn't right! Nanyun! Am I not your best friend anymore?! You didn't even tell me last night!]
[The Beautiful Master of Cute Shadow: Congratulations! A few days ago, I took Shadow to get its latent energy checked, and the staff said it was almost brimming. It should be evolving soon too.]
[The Beautiful Master of Cute Shadow: Zimeng, no more talk, I'm taking Shadow to train. See you later!]
[Zimeng's Dream: Ahhh! Huo Nanyun! I'll settle this with you when we go to school the day after tomorrow. I'm taking Diandian to train too!]
...
The next morning, at Tianqi Beast Taming High School's exclusive School Team training ground.
Liu Yi arrived 20 minutes earlier than the designated time, but to her surprise, quite a few team members were already in the training ground.
As soon as she stepped through the door, a familiar voice called out.
“Liu Yi!” Wei Tan'an quickly walked over, her Azure Blade Mantis following behind her. “Perfect, I’ve been waiting for you.”
Liu Yi stopped. “Is something wrong?”
Wei Tan'an said seriously, “This week, I’ve been reviewing our last battle every day. I’ve also done special training targeting Azure Blade Mantis’s skills and traits.”
“I hope to battle your Moling Dragon again. This time—”
Her words abruptly stopped as she stared wide-eyed at Chiying, who flew in from behind Liu Yi.
“Th-this is...?”
The training ground instantly fell silent, all eyes fixed on the evolved Chiying.
“Moling Dragon,” Liu Yi introduced concisely. “Chiying evolved.”
“Evolved?!” Wei Tan'an almost couldn't close her mouth. “How long has it even been?”
A second-year team member walked over and patted Wei Tan'an’s shoulder. “Tan'an, didn’t you see the information released by the Beast Tamer Association and the news reports from the Longwu Region last night? The Moling Dragon’s evolved form has already been officially recorded in the Beast Encyclopedia.”
Wei Tan'an shook her head blankly. “I… I’ve been training from morning till night this week, and last night I was doing extra training in the training hall…”
Ouyang Qin emerged from the crowd, her gaze lingering on Chiying for a moment. “It seems the rumors are true.” She turned to Liu Yi. “I heard your Moling Dragon gained the brand new Trait ‘Cloud Walking’?”
Liu Yi nodded. In fact, the only new Trait recorded by the Beast Tamer Association was ‘Cloud Walking’.
Li Chengying suddenly darted out, waving her arms excitedly. “Senior Qin, I told you I saw it with my own eyes yesterday! Chiying was carrying Liu Yi and flying in the sky, faster than my Mianmian!”
Gao Xue clamped a hand over Li Chengying’s mouth. “Little mouth.”
Li Chengying: “Mmmph mmmph mmmph.”
Wei Tan'an’s expression gradually shifted from shock to dejection. She looked down at her Azure Blade Mantis, then at Chiying, who had already evolved to the Intermediate stage, her shoulders slumping slightly. “I... I thought...”
Liu Yi walked up to Wei Tan'an. “How were the results of Azure Blade Mantis’s special training?”
Wei Tan'an looked up, somewhat surprised Liu Yi would ask that. “Not bad. Both its speed and reactions have improved.”
“That’s good,” Liu Yi countered. “Chiying evolved, but your Azure Blade Mantis is also making progress. Isn’t the point of Teacher Wei having us battle to promote mutual growth?”
Wei Tan'an paused. “You’re right. Once my Azure Blade Mantis evolves, we’ll have another match!”
Soon, the rest of the School Team members arrived. Liu Yi noticed there were four more members in the training ground than last week.
They must be the new members selected from the first-year rankings of the Tower of Trials after last week’s events.
Wei Xiuyu pushed the door open precisely on time. Her gaze swept across the room, pausing slightly when she saw Chiying, but quickly returning to normal.
“Gather,” she ordered concisely.
The School Team members quickly lined up. Liu Yi stood at the front of the new first-year members, Ziyue quietly crouched at her feet, and Chiying hovered by her side.
Wei Xiuyu operated a terminal at the edge of the field. A holographic projection in the center of the training ground lit up, displaying the words “National High School League New Format”.
“This year’s league has undergone major reforms,” Wei Xiuyu’s voice echoed through the training ground. “The biggest change this year is the abolition of the segmented competition system for first-years, second-years, and third-years, replacing it with a mixed-grade competition for all high school years.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the training ground immediately erupted.
“Mixed-grade competition?!” a first-year male student exclaimed. “Doesn’t that mean we’ll be up against second-year and third-year opponents?”
“How are we supposed to fight like this?!” another first-year team member wailed. “Senior Ouyang and her group already have one Advanced rank pet and one Intermediate stage pet.”
“I’ve watched previous National High School League matches, and even slightly weaker third-years generally have two pets!”
The second-year team members also exchanged glances. Wei Tan'an frowned. “The gap between us and the third-years isn’t small either…”
Wei Xiuyu waited until they had mostly finished speaking, then switched the holographic projection to a map of Yan Country before calmly asking, “You all know what the full format of previous years’ tournaments was, right?”
Rate on N.U.
