Chapter 39: Full Favorability

“`

Chi Yu seemed to have smelled the lingering scent of a mid-tier pet meal in the room. The unique and enticing aroma made it restless, with even its blood coursing with a faint surge of excitement.

The clever creature understood which man in this household was the best at cooking. It swiftly ran to Chen Xing, affectionately nuzzling his head with its own.

“What are you doing?”

“Ao woo, ao woo.” Chi Yu kept calling out.

“There’s none left, we’ve only got one meal left at home, and I’m saving it for Taotie. If you eat it, Taotie won’t have enough.”

Chen Xing said helplessly, “How about I cook another meal for you tomorrow?”

“Ao woo.” Chi Yu looked pitifully at Chen Xing. Chen Xing understood its meaning— it said it would only eat a little bit, even just a taste would do.

“Just a little bit, huh… alright then. But you’ll have to explain it to Taotie yourself.”

“Ao woo~” Chi Yu jumped up excitedly, completely shedding its cool demeanor from before.

It might have been that Chi Yu was being too noisy, as Chen Lingya chided, “Chi Yu, shut up.”

“Didn’t you put something addictive in your cooking?” Chen Lingya asked suspiciously. Chi Yu’s temperament was actually quite calm; it was rare to see it this boisterous.

Chen Xing chuckled lightly, “I cooked everything right in front of you. Whether I added anything, didn’t you see it all clearly?”

“That’s true.” Chen Lingya was still a bit puzzled, but sadly she couldn’t communicate directly with Chi Yu. Even in daily interactions, she could only grasp the general idea, like when it indicated it found something tasty or wanted to eat. “Anyway… why does it want to eat so badly?”

“Can’t it just be that my cooking is good and it loves to eat it?” Chen Xing scratched under Chi Yu’s chin.

Chi Yu squinted its eyes and lifted its head proudly, purring from its throat.

Watching Chi Yu act so sycophantly for just a bit of food, Chen Lingya felt a sense of disdain.

“Right, let’s settle the food bill. I don’t mind cooking for it, but the ingredients are too expensive, your brother is so broke he can’t even lift the pot lid.”

“Enough already, your sister has plenty of money.” Chen Lingya haughtily slapped five hundred-yuan bills on the table from her wallet.

After slapping the money down, she smirked with the haughty bearing of an elder sister.

Chen Xing slowly pocketed the money from the table, then stretched out his open palm in front of Chen Lingya, “You’re still short four thousand five hundred. Thanks for your patronage, boss.”

Chen Lingya froze. This price…

“It’s all made with bred monster meat, at cost. I haven’t overcharged you a penny.”

Monster meat? No wonder it was so expensive.

Chen Lingya’s face flushed red in the aftermath, thinking about the way she had flaunted her money earlier. She gritted her teeth in silent fury. That stinking little brother must be laughing at me! Indeed, a brother needs a good beating every now and then.

“You’re not short on money, are you? That won’t do.” Chen Xing feigned exaggeration, then shook his head, “Never mind, if my sister wants to freeload, could this little brother really refuse her?”

Hearing Chen Xing’s sarcastic tone, Chen Lingya huffed coldly, “Don’t worry, you won’t be short of living expenses. I’ll give it to you tomorrow.”

It wasn’t that she found it too expensive, but Wanhai High School, although it provided her with plenty of resources, would issue them directly to her, and they were typically required to be used within the school.

She was aware that, although the resources were officially distributed by the school, in reality, they were dispensed by “the organization,” merely channeled through the school to her.

As for money, other than a small scholarship given each semester, she had no other source of income.

The reason was quite simple—as the purpose of giving money was to buy resources, it made more sense for the school to handle it to prevent the purchase of inferior quality items. Moreover, the school and the organization had their own procurement channels, which made the cost even lower.

However, this wasn’t to say she had no way of making money.

“`

Chen Lingya was making plans at the bottom of her heart. Tomorrow, she would make time to visit the Ze City Secret Realm. She hadn’t gone last year because her Beast Taming level wasn’t high enough; she felt it was rather dangerous. The main danger didn’t come solely from the omnipresent monsters but also included other Beast Tamers.

This year her Beast Taming level was sufficient, but she had been waiting, preparing to go after her beasts evolved. That way, she could maximize the use of the opportunity for Jincheng citizens to enter the Ze City Secret Realm for free once a year.

Every Beast Tamer who entered the Ze City Secret Realm could take up to three wild monsters out of the realm for free, whether dead or alive. Numerous cameras were also installed in the Secret Realm, ensuring that wild monsters could not be wantonly attacked or slaughtered unless they initiated an attack on a Beast Tamer.

This was to ensure the sustainable and cyclical development of the Ze City Secret Realm and was the reason why, after so many years, it still had abundant Beast Taming resources without being exhausted.

Otherwise, with the tens of millions of people in Jincheng, the group of Beast Tamers alone was enormous.

Since compulsory education, the number of civilian Beast Tamers had been growing year by year. If not controlled, the Ze City Secret Realm would be depleted before long.

The subsequent Beast Tamers would then have no chance to explore this Secret Realm.

In reality, the true freedom lay in the Exotic Region, which was even more vast and boundless than the world they lived in.

The Exotic Region was vast with sparse population; despite many years of effort, Great Xia and other countries still couldn’t probe the borders of the Exotic Region. Monsters there were rampant, unlike in Great Xia, where they had been controlled and became “endangered species.”

Chen Lingya planned to capture three of the most valuable monsters in the Ze City Secret Realm tomorrow and sell them for a high price.

“I’m going back to sleep,” Chen Lingya stood up, returned to her room, and quickly closed the door. She then hurriedly took out her phone to check which monsters were the most expensive in the Ze City Secret Realm.

…

“Feeding the beast once, intimacy value reached 100, obtained 5 Skill Point Fragments.”

“Training the beast once, intimacy level reached 100, obtained 5 Skill Point Fragments.”

Finally, Taotie’s intimacy level was maxed out. Having raised it for so long, Chen Xing finally increased its intimacy to the maximum value and felt a strong sense of achievement at this moment.

However, this was enough to show the sheer difficulty of maxing out the intimacy level. Even as a beast he had raised since birth, assisted by Affinity Knowledge skills, it took over a month to increase its intimacy to the maximum value.

Two daily activities, each yielding 5 Skill Point Fragments, meant he could reliably earn one skill point every day.

This time, Chen Xing’s target skill was the manufacturing technique for spicy dried fish.

Once he acquired this skill, he could make food that quickly restored Magic Power and then give Taotie more opportunities to use its skills.

With only a 2-3 point increase in skill proficiency level each day, the progress was too slow.

If he continued at this rate, by the end of the month, he could at most improve the proficiency level of the Grand Vortex Skill to a level of mastery. If he could have food that rapidly restored Magic Power and increase the frequency of daily mini-games, perhaps he could advance the proficiency level of the Grand Vortex Skill to an expert level before the month’s end!

A night went by, and the next morning, the size of Taotie steadily increased.

Its body length officially surpassed 3 meters!

[Species] Salty Bay Crocodile

[Energy Level] 11.5

[Energy Level Limit] 38

[Body Length] 301.1cm

[Weight] 140kg

It’s no exaggeration to say that many classmates’ beasts were only half the length of Taotie at most, not to mention its bulk.

Placing the two side by side was like a primary school student standing next to Schwarzenegger.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep