Chapter 689: Half a month later (two-in-one)

After You Na left, an hour later, the doorbell rang again.

Qiao Sang looked at the monitor and saw it was Hugh Lewis.

She wasn’t surprised by his arrival; she had scheduled meetings with ambitious classmates at different times today, and Hugh Lewis was the second.

Qiao Sang opened the door.

“Your place is quite close to Yu Liandun University,” Hugh Lewis said as he walked in, handing her a gift box. “I originally planned to have this miniature shrinking bracelet delivered directly, but since I’m here today, I brought it along for you.”

A miniature shrinking bracelet? Qiao Sang’s eyes lit up, and she reached out to take it. “Thank you.”

“Try it on Flame Qilu to see if it fits,” Hugh Lewis said with a smile.

“Okay,” Qiao Sang said, turning her head, and her eyes met Steel Treasure’s.

“Steel Guard.”

Steel Treasure nodded, indicating understanding, then walked towards the outdoor training ground.

I haven’t even said anything, what do you understand…? Qiao Sang stared at Steel Treasure’s back, momentarily stunned.

Just as she was about to follow, she suddenly sensed something, and then saw Ya! walk in.

Beside him, Steel Treasure, whose presence was not very strong, followed.

“Ya Ya?”

Ya! wagged its tail, calling out excitedly.

Its miniature shrinking bracelet had arrived?

At this moment, Qiao Sang suddenly understood why so many people liked butler-type Pets and why there were even special training schools for them.

Indeed, having a Pet that understands your meaning without much speaking and arranges everything in the house perfectly is quite convenient…

“Yes, the miniature shrinking bracelet is here. Try it on to see if it fits,” Qiao Sang said, opening the gift box and taking out the miniature shrinking bracelet.

She noticed that this miniature shrinking bracelet was slightly different from those sold on the market; it wasn’t a single solid color but had flame patterns, and upon closer inspection, there was even a character “Qiao” on it.

Qiao Sang turned to look at Hugh Lewis to ask about it, only to find him staring intently at Ya!.

It was the kind of awestruck gaze, as if he had seen a goddess.

Qiao Sang: “…”

“Does it look good?” Qiao Sang asked.

“Beautiful!” Hugh Lewis exclaimed, his face full of admiration as he scrutinized the Pet with flame wings, wishing he could reach out and touch it.

At the dinner gathering yesterday, Qiao Sang only let them see Ghost Ring King, saying that Flame Qilu was too large and inconvenient to summon inside the restaurant, so everyone naturally didn’t say much.

They had assumed it was just an alien Pet, and even if it looked strange, it was only because no one had seen it before. The classmates were all there for Qiao Sang, so at most, they suppressed their curiosity, not wanting to bring up anything that might inconvenience Qiao Sang.

But Hugh Lewis never expected Flame Qilu to look like this!

Majestic, domineering, noble, magnificent—it instantly surpassed over 90% of the Pets on Super Dormant Star!

In other words, it had captured his heart.

“Ya!”

Hearing someone praise it, Ya! proudly raised its head, maintaining a 45-degree upward gaze.

Logically, this pose should have been very cool, but unfortunately, Ya! was now over 6 meters tall. With such an upward gaze, where one could originally see its entire face, others could only see its chin and nostrils, which instantly made Hugh Lewis calm down quite a bit.

“Ya!, put it on.” Qiao Sang opened her hand, revealing the miniature shrinking bracelet.

“Ya!”

Ya! barked, then its eyes glowed blue.

The next second, a button on the miniature shrinking bracelet was pressed down.

Then, the bracelet slowly enlarged until it was exactly as thick as Ya!’s leg, then stopped.

General-level Pets also vary in size, and the precise sizing was possible because Qiao Sang had sent Ya!’s body data yesterday.

Under the control of its psychic power, Ya! put on the miniature shrinking bracelet.

An invisible wave emanated from the miniature shrinking bracelet, covering Ya!’s entire body, and then its size slowly diminished.

Looking at the shrinking Flame Qilu, Hugh Lewis said:

“This miniature shrinking bracelet is custom-made and super fire-resistant. Even if your Flame Qilu goes into a volcano again, as long as it comes out within three minutes, there won will not be any damage.”

Although Qiao Sang had guessed it when she saw the style and the character “Qiao,” she was still a bit surprised to hear this: “Can it be custom-made in such a short time?”

Hugh Lewis smiled:

“The prototype of the miniature shrinking bracelet has actually always been in stock. Whether it’s fire-resistant, water-resistant, or electric-resistant, all you need to do is input the data and engrave the character.”

Qiao Sang was not from Super Dormant Star and had pre-ordered the miniature shrinking bracelet online, indicating that no one in her family was involved in this business, so Hugh Lewis didn’t mind revealing a bit more.

The evils of capitalism! They could ship quickly, yet the most ordinary miniature shrinking bracelet still required a wait of over half a month, creating a hunger marketing strategy… Qiao Sang grumbled inwardly, maintaining a smile on the surface:

“You’ve gone to a lot of trouble. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to use the miniature shrinking bracelet so quickly.”

“Don’t be so polite with me,” Hugh Lewis said with a smile.

As they talked, Ya!’s size had already reverted to that of its Fire Fang Dog period.

“Ya!”

It looked up at its Yu Beast Master’s current height, a nostalgic expression on its face, then wagged its tail excitedly and pounced over.

Qiao Sang instinctively dodged, and Ya! missed.

“Ya…”

Ya! was startled at first, then showed a disbelieving, hurt expression.

You won’t hug me!

You actually won’t hug me!

Seeing Ya! with tears welling up, looking like it was about to cry, Qiao Sang quickly said, “Look at your two big wings, how can I hug you!”

“Ya!”

Hearing this, Ya! stopped its tears, then its internal energy circulated, and the flame-condensed wings gradually shrank until they disappeared.

“Ya Ya!”

After the flame wings disappeared, Ya! wagged its tail again and pounced over.

This time, Qiao Sang firmly caught Ya!.

Ya!’s flame wings could be controlled to appear or disappear; Qiao Sang had known this for some time. At that time, Ya! was training Lava Purgatory and had completely depleted its internal energy.

Then she discovered that as the energy disappeared, the flame wings would also disappear.

In short, the flames on the wings directly reflected the energy within Ya!.

This made Qiao Sang a little worried.

Because in this way, in future competitions, if opponents had investigated Ya!’s situation, they would know that they could tell its energy status from the flame wings.

This was a very disadvantageous thing in a competition, so she had Ya! train a bit.

She didn’t expect it to be able to control the appearance of its flame wings at will in just one day.

But that was all; it couldn’t control the size of the flame wings.

However, Qiao Sang was already very satisfied.

Hugh Lewis watched the Flame Qilu’s flame wings disappear, revealing that look as if he had seen a goddess perform a talent. He then thought of something, composed his expression, scanned the living room, and asked:

“Are we just going to chat here?”

“Let’s go to the study,” Qiao Sang said, holding Ya! and walking upstairs.

The two of them sat down in the study, one after the other.

They had barely started chatting when Steel Treasure walked in, carrying a tray with three cups of tea on its wings, then set it down and quietly exited.

Qiao Sang’s expression was calm this time, and she said, “Have a taste. It’s brewed by Steel Guardian Falcon.”

Hugh Lewis politely picked up a teacup, took a sip, and said, “Not bad.”

“Ya…”

Ya! poured it directly into its mouth, downed it in one gulp, and then showed a slightly disgusted expression.

It didn’t like the taste of tea…

“Let’s continue discussing what we were just talking about,” Hugh Lewis said, putting down his teacup. “I have no objection to the cooperation. I can give you shares based on the investment ratio, but at most, it can only be 15%, because you will not be on Super Dormant Star after half a year, and it will be difficult to make decisions on many matters.”

In fact, there were many people in the circle who could invest, so he shouldn’t have looked for someone from another planet to cooperate with.

But this person was Qiao Sang, a genius he had never seen before.

The so-called brand Pet prop store was, in essence, just a business. Given their backgrounds, any social interaction had a purpose.

He had already prepared to lose money by establishing this brand Pet prop store, but if the cooperation partner was Qiao Sang, he wanted to make this brand successful.

After all, classmate relationships were not reliable; only a convergence of interests would bind people together.

…After Hugh Lewis left, En arrived, and finally, Wen Xiao.

En planned to open a pure-bred Pet base, intending to import a batch of pure-bred Pets for breeding and sale.

Any Pet, as long as it’s pure-bred, will double in price.

Pets of this kind are not easy to find, and the target customer base is also the high-end group. Coupled with En’s existing background and connections, Qiao Sang was quite optimistic about this business. They eventually agreed on shares based on the investment ratio, giving her 25%.

Wen Xiao was from Long Nation, but she was a Long Nation native on Super Dormant Star.

With the shared nationality, Qiao Sang had a very pleasant conversation with her.

Wen Xiao wanted to get into Pet grooming.

On Super Dormant Star, even though everyone valued strength, there were still people who enjoyed Pet image management and becoming Pet Coordinators. Qiao Sang felt this business was also viable, so she invested and took a 30% share.

All the cooperation discussions went very smoothly.

This surprised Qiao Sang a little. She didn’t expect her Sainan High School classmates to be so easy to talk to, without any hint of a capitalist’s demeanor.

She had originally prepared to just throw money at them, but unfortunately, no one gave her that opportunity.

…8 PM.

After dinner, Qiao Sang took Ya! to the outdoor training ground and handed over the Lava Crystal: “Absorb this.”

“Ya Ya?”

Ya! tilted its head, a confused expression on its face.

What is this?

“It’s called a Lava Crystal. Absorbing it can strengthen your Lava Purgatory,” Qiao Sang explained.

“Ya!”

Hearing this, Ya!’s eyes lit up, and it swallowed the Lava Crystal in one gulp.

Soon, the energy within its body began to boil.

Qiao Sang couldn’t see the state inside Ya!’s body, only that its two flame wings suddenly flared up, becoming exceptionally fierce.

Suddenly, scorching magma slowly surged from the positions of the two flame wings.

The dazzling and vibrant magma flowed onto the ground, and in an instant, terrifying high temperatures swept over everything nearby.

Qiao Sang was about to retreat.

Just then, a blue shadow darted out, pulling her away from her spot with lightning speed.

Qiao Sang looked down and saw it was Lu Bao.

“Ice Ke.”

Lu Bao brought Qiao Sang to a spot unaffected by Ya! and stopped.

“Were you here all along?” Qiao Sang asked, dismounting from Lu Bao.

“Ice Ke.”

Lu Bao looked in Ya!’s direction and nodded.

It seems Lu Bao was here in its Water Fusion form just now… Qiao Sang sighed softly in her heart.

Lu Bao probably came specifically to see how Ya! was getting stronger…

Even though Lu Bao said nothing and its expression hadn’t changed much from usual, Qiao Sang somehow understood its current state of mind.

The wings, formed from flames, danced wildly, and as the magma flowed across the ground, Ya!’s aura grew even more formidable.

Lu Bao looked at Ya! like this, its claws unconsciously digging into the ground, a sense of powerlessness rising in its heart.

It’s getting stronger again…

“Don’t worry,” a soft, warm hand touched its head at that moment. “You’ll also become very strong eventually; it’s just a matter of time.”

“Ice Ke.”

Lu Bao turned its head, looked at the familiar face, relaxed its claws, and let out a cry.

It knew.

…The S-grade Lava Crystal was no joke; it directly added 302 Points to Ya!’s Lava Purgatory skill.

It’s important to note that initially, at its peak, Ya! could only manage to cast Lava Purgatory 3 times by gritting its teeth. Later, after consuming an S-grade energy recovery agent, it honed the Lava Purgatory skill to a master level.

The higher the skill level and proficiency, the greater the power and the more energy consumed, which reduced Ya!’s original 3 uses to 2.

302 Points meant 302 uses, so one can imagine how delighted Qiao Sang was.

Without the energy recovery agent, this would mean Ya! saved 151 days of training time.

Unfortunately, materials of the same grade also have value differences.

Other S-grade items and materials might be obtainable by spending money and visiting several well-known stores, but not many Yu Beast Masters need S-grade Lava Crystals.

Low demand means low supply.

When an item’s inherent value is not low, but its quantity is scarce, its value will increase even further.

Therefore, Qiao Sang did not find any stores directly selling S-grade Lava Crystals on the market; otherwise, she would have certainly gotten a few.

…Half a month later.

Late at night.

Two Ghost Ring Kings were furiously typing on their respective computers in the living room.

Xiao Xunbao was playing a team-based dungeon game. It had created two accounts, both in the same team.

The computer’s glow reflected in Xiao Xunbao’s golden eyes, showing a hint of excitement.

“Xun Xun!”

Xiao Xunbao controlled its character to cast Flame Vortex on a small monster.

“Xun Xun…”

Suddenly, the Substitute next to it called out.

It was hungry…

Xiao Xunbao felt it, and indeed, it felt hungry.

“Xun Xun.”

Xiao Xunbao gestured towards the kitchen to the Substitute.

The Substitute nodded and floated towards the kitchen.

Soon, the Substitute brought back a large bag of snacks and opened it.

“Xun Xun~”

Xiao Xunbao took it, pulled out potato chips, and popped them into its mouth one by one.

The Substitute next to it didn’t eat, but it smacked its lips as Xiao Xunbao ate, showing a satisfied expression, then continued playing on the computer. (End of Chapter)