CRACK!

Yu Bao split into two.

"Woof?!" The Little Black Fighting Emperor made a tactical retreat.

’I haven’t even hit him yet, so how did Yu Bao just split apart? Is this how you run a scam?!’

’No, wait, it’s a clone! But aren’t clones unable to use Skills?’

Realizing the problem, the Little Black Fighting Emperor hastily turned around, only to see a Yu Bao already right in front of him, lowering its center of gravity as if trying to peek at his underwear.

A Sandstorm was unleashed, erupting with enough force at point-blank range to successfully send the Little Black Fighting Emperor flying.

The Yu Bao that had unleashed the Sandstorm dissolved into a pile of sand and vanished.

Finally, the real Yu Bao leaped high into the air, landing a Skybound Strike on the Little Black Fighting Emperor’s horn.

This move was called: the principle of leverage!

With a dull THUD, the Little Black Fighting Emperor fell to the ground, its six legs pointing skyward. Yu Bao immediately used Earth Force Field to lock it in place.

The Little Black Fighting Emperor struggled for a moment like a salted fish, then sighed and chose to surrender.

"Woof..."

’Big Brother Yu Bao is as unfathomable as ever...’

Yu Bao retracted the Earth Force Field, freeing his good brother, but he also let out a wistful sigh and looked out of the cave.

’A pity. I could have shown off three times, but in the end, I only got to do it once.’

[Assignable Attribute Points: 0.04...0.07]

·

In the middle of the night, the rain began to subside.

The shadows from the campfire danced slowly on the cave wall. The crackling of the fire and the pitter-patter of the rain intertwined, melting into a white noise that was especially conducive to sleep.

In a corner of the cave, Yu Bao was sleeping soundly, all four paws in the air, his head pillowed on Xiaoyue’s belly.

Xiaoyue had one paw pressed against Yu Bao’s head, an expression of disdain on his face... and had fallen asleep just like that.

Inside the tent, the young woman’s body rose and fell in peaceful sleep. Her bright white hair was splayed across the pillow like a silken waterfall.

Confirming that she was resting, Su Zhi got up quietly with a smile and left the tent.

He was responsible for the first watch of the night. Around three or four o’clock, she would get up to take over.

As he turned, he saw Yu Bao sitting obediently behind him, wagging his tail gently.

"You’re awake?" Su Zhi ruffled his head, asking curiously, "I was just about to wake you up."

"Woof."

Yu Bao was indicating, ’If my Beast Tamer is awake, then I can’t keep sleeping!’

Hearing the little guy’s thoughts, Su Zhi couldn’t help but smile a little wider.

The man and his pet added some wood to the campfire, and the dimming embers gradually brightened again.

This firewood had been made from vines summoned by Xiaoyue’s Vine Fury, which were then dried out. It was flammable, long-burning, and could be produced endlessly for free. A true must-have artifact for home and travel~

On a whim, Yu Bao sidled up to Xiaoyue and started grooming his fur.

Normally, Xiaoyue would never allow such a breach of seniority to occur, but he was asleep now and didn’t know it was Yu Bao grooming him.

In his sleep, Xiaoyue vaguely recalled the memory of his mother grooming him as a kit.

"Meeeoow~~"

Xiaoyue let out a soft, coquettish mewl, tucked his two front paws under his chest, and rubbed his head against Yu Bao’s body.

Yu Bao revealed a subtle smile.

’Is this revealing the unknown side of our aloof big brother...’ Su Zhi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

If Yu Bao knew about the concept of "social death," he would probably have Su Zhi record this moment and send a copy to Xiaoyue when they got home.

With such a lively little guy around, keeping watch at night wasn’t so boring after all.

Su Zhi sat down by the campfire just like that, watching the two Pet Beasts, reading an e-book on his phone, and occasionally glancing at the peacefully sleeping girl.

The fire burned quietly; the night passed peacefully.

The Little Black Fighting Emperor, however, lay at the cave’s entrance the whole time, its two antennae drooping slightly, looking a little gloomy.

Suddenly, a warm hand patted its shell.

"Something on your mind?"

Su Zhi sat down beside it and asked gently.

"Woof..." The Little Black Fighting Emperor nodded, touched Su Zhi’s hand with an antenna, and began to confide in him in a low voice.

Su Zhi listened quietly.

As the Beast Taming Space leveled up, the effectiveness of information exchange between a Beast Tamer and an Exotic Beast also improved.

Now, even without Yu Bao to translate, he could understand some less complex information.

It turned out the Little Black Fighting Emperor was still thinking about their spar from earlier.

It had trained for so long, yet it hadn’t caught up to Yu Bao. In fact, the gap between them had only grown wider.

It felt so useless, a bit Yuyu.

Su Zhi glanced at the time—exactly twelve o’clock at night. ’Suddenly I feel like putting on some sad emo music...’

The Little Black Fighting Emperor: "?"

"Actually, you’ve already done very well. You don’t always have to put yourself down."

"Yu Bao has been training hard in all sorts of ways these past few days and has put in a lot of effort. He also has the buff from my Beast Taming Space, so of course he’s going to grow faster than a wild Exotic Beast."

"The fact that you’ve improved to this extent without a Beast Tamer is actually quite remarkable, isn’t it?"

Su Zhi patted the little guy’s big head.

He remembered when they first met, the Little Black Fighting Emperor was only slightly larger than Yu Bao. Now, it was almost the size of a small calf.

Even though it had gotten so much bigger, at the end of the day, it was still a big baby.

"...Woof?" The Little Black Fighting Emperor looked at Yu Bao.

’Is that really true?’

"Woof woof." Yu Bao gave his good brother a thumbs-up and an encouraging look.

’Keep it up! You got this!’

Su Zhi added the finishing blow: "The only reason Yu Bao challenged you to a spar today was to show off. But he failed, and he’s been stewing about it ever since. You have to believe that making Yu Bao fail at showing off is a victory in itself."

Yu Bao’s face fell. "Woof woof..."

The cave was filled with cheerful air.

After laughing at Yu Bao with Su Zhi, the Little Black Fighting Emperor also felt it had gotten over its funk.

"Woof!" The Little Black Fighting Emperor tugged on the corner of Su Zhi’s clothes again.

’Since I’ll be your bug sooner or later, please grant me a name!’

’I get the logic, but why does that sound a little weird...’ Su Zhi was momentarily speechless, then chuckled and started thinking about a name.

Since they had already decided on a contract, it really did need a name.

"Woof woof." Yu Bao suggested, ’Let’s just call it something-Bao! Just pick a word to put in front!’

Su Zhi nodded. He was thinking the same thing, but he couldn’t think of a good name right away.

Yu Bao’s Race was Yu Dian Dog, so Su Zhi hadn’t put much thought into it and just named him Yu Bao, which rolled off the tongue.

The Little Black Fighting Emperor was a bit trickier...

Hei Bao? Treasure Battle? Imperial Treasure??

None of them seemed quite right...

"Woof?" Seeing his struggle, the Little Black Fighting Emperor blinked its eyes.

’Is naming really so profound? Our kind just uses different infrasonic frequencies to tell each other apart...’

Hearing the Little Black Fighting Emperor’s voice, Su Zhi’s eyes lit up:

"Let’s call you Wu Bao."

"Woof woof!"

Wu Bao’s eyes lit up. It spun around, leaped, and bounced happily on the spot.

’Yay, I have a name now!’

’One step closer to catching up with Boss Yu Bao!’

Noticing the malicious glint in his future little brother’s eyes, Yu Bao narrowed his own warily.

’Tsk tsk, the son is always trying to become the father.’

He remembered that the last time they parted, the Little Black Fighting Emperor already had crooked ideas about out-competing him. And as expected, it was much stronger this time they met.

And that was without a contract or having any points allocated.

’If it gets contracted by Su Zhi and can have points allocated, won’t that be disastrous?’

’Just you wait, I’ll compete you to death when we get back!’

Sensing the thoughts of the two little guys, Su Zhi face-palmed and chuckled. "Having a competitive spirit is good, but friendship comes first, winning and losing second..."

Before he could finish his sentence, a shocking bolt of lightning suddenly shot into the cave entrance, striking the campfire that had just been fed more wood.

The burning firewood scattered in all directions under the onslaught of the lightning. Yu Bao instantly summoned a Yellow Earth Wall to block the pieces, preventing them from landing on Su Zhi and the tent.

Before the flaming debris had even finished falling, the tent was yanked open. The young woman rushed to Su Zhi’s side, her long, bright white hair flying against the gale that gusted in.

"Are you hurt!?" she yelled.

"No!" Su Zhi yelled back just as loudly.

Yu Bao, Wu Bao, and Xiaoyue stood shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the two Beast Tamers, staring intently into the pitch-black night outside the cave.

KRA-

A flash of ghastly white lightning illuminated the sky, and the two humans and three pets saw more than ten Leos circling above. They recognized the nearly six-meter-wide, light-gray giant wings of King Leou.

Its originally dark yellow eyes were now an abnormal, scarlet red—

[Pet Beast: Leo (Wild)

Attribute: Wind, Electric Element

Race: High Level Extraordinary Race

Real-time Energy Value: 2023]

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