On the twenty-fourth, Su Bai fished at the reservoir with his pets for some time and then spent the rest of the afternoon resting.
The end of July was the hottest period of summer, and it was incredibly hot where he was at. Presently, he was lounging in the living room on the villa's second floor, eating grapes and enjoying the air conditioner as he looked at the hazy world outside.
His four pets were also lying lazily, dozing off in the living room. The spring fever induced sleepiness, and all of them were prone to dozing off especially in the afternoon.
Su Bai gazed at them and slowly closed his eyes.
In the living room, the Little Tyrant was lying on the ground with a fiery crystal.
Purple Jade and the Little White Fox were lying quietly on the sofa like two sleeping kittens.
The Little Blood Dragon, which had shrunk its size slightly, lay on the table not far from him. Seeing him fast asleep, it released spiritual power to change the wind direction of the air conditioner so that the cold wind would not directly blow at him.
It then lay there and stared quietly at him with gentle eyes, seemingly feeling extremely satisfied.
Time passed in the blink of an eye and it was the next day soon.
"Wow, we slept so well!"
Su Bai got up and stretched lazily. He then walked over to the front of the bed. From there, he could see the beautiful scenery of the entire Baiyue Manor.
What greeted his sight were a piece of green spiritual field, a Y-shaped river which resembled a jade belt on the left, and a reservoir reflecting the blue skies and white clouds in the distance.
Everything was set in the summer morning, and he felt much refreshed now as he looked into the distance.
"Roar~"
Good morning, Ah Bai!
The Little Blood Dragon, which was lying on the desk by the window, raised its head in greeting.
"Good morning!"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})He came over and caressed its smooth body with a smile.
"Howl!"
The cub also opened its eyes and looked at him before closing them again. The Little Tyrant and the Mewling Fox were still fast asleep.
"Get up, everyone; we're going out today. We won't have breakfast to eat if we're late."
Su Bai went to the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth.
After washing up, he returned to his room and prepared their breakfast.
As soon as the food was ready, all four pets poked their heads over.
Su Bai: "…"
Sure enough, food could wake up some pets pretending to sleep.
While his pets ate, he changed his clothes.
After putting on a set of clean casual clothes, he carried his backpack and set off with his pets which had all finished eating.
He called a flying bird service and arrived at the Blue Moon Cultivation House at only 7 a.m.
"Hey, you came so early. Have you eaten breakfast? I have some ready-made meals here."
In the backyard, Hou Jie and Hou Lan were eating when they saw him.
"It's alright; I've eaten already." He shook his head.
He had bought fried dough sticks and soy milk on the way here.
"Alright, then. Wait a while. We'll leave after I finish eating," said Hou Lan.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Su Bai went to the bench and sat down to wait. Hou Jie exhorted instructions and precautions to her younger brother while they ate. She was as naggy as an old mother.
It was obvious that she had a tendency to boss around her younger brother.
"Let's go."
Hou Lan carried his backpack and nodded at Su Bai. His flying pet, the mid-level commander Big Ray, had already landed on the ground.
"Okay." Nodding, Su Bai got up and waved at the woman. "Goodbye, Teacher Hou."
"Goodbye. Take care of my brother for me." She also waved to him.
The Big Ray took off, and in the blink of an eye, the Blue Moon Cultivation House was no longer in sight.
"Brother Hou, where's our destination for this seminar? Can you tell me now?" asked Su Bai curiously.
"This time around, the destination is outside the city. It's a special small monster wilderness—a place of peculiarity.
"There aren't many people going, only a few dozen, so don't worry," replied the other.
"A place of peculiarity? How so?" He pressed on, even more curious. He originally thought that they would go to a big city and truly did not expect it to be a monster wilderness.
"I can't describe it, either. Anyway, it's a very interesting place. It's not too far away. We can arrive in the afternoon at this speed," Hou Lan said.
"Okay, then."
Settling on the Big Ray's back, Su Bai stopped asking questions and teased the cub from time to time.
In this parallel world, this was his first time leaving Cannes.
This world was very different from what he had in mind. The gathering of humans was relatively concentrated, and tall forests occupied most of the land.
Although there were roads extending in all directions on land, they were not congested. They actually looked deserted, and some spirits and monsters could only be seen occasionally.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})As the ray traveled further from the city, the forests grew taller and taller, until eventually the mewls of several feline families, gibbers of apes, chirpings of birds, and roars of beasts could easily be heard.
"We're here."
When the sun was about to set, Hou Lan finally declared.
"Oh."
Su Bai raised his head and looked ahead to see a waterfall with a height of fifty meters in the distance. Clear water rushed down very spectacularly.
He had no clue where this place was and only roughly understood that this was somewhere deep in the Hengduan mountains.
"Wait for me to send a message, so someone can open the door."
Hou Lan let the Big Ray settle under the waterfall and told him.
"Okay."
Su Bai jumped down with the cub and strolled around.
"Huh, why are the fish so big here!"
He exclaimed in surprise, his eyes widening at the sight of the abundant aquatic animals in the river.
If it were not for Hou Lan's business, he would want to make a temporary fishing rod and catch fish.
The cub leaned on the edge of the stone slab, eager to try catching the fish swimming in the water.
At this moment, an illusory spatial door on the waterfall's side opened, and an old man walked out with seven or eight people.
"Teacher Tong." Hou Lan greeted the old man quickly.
"You're here." The old man nodded and looked curiously at Su Bai. "Who is this little friend? Your sister didn't come with you?"
"Yeah, why didn't Sister Hou come?" asked a blonde-haired young man.
The other men also looked in their direction. Compared to Su Bai, they much preferred the big beauty Hou Jie.
"My sister has classes, so I brought a friend to help me, instead. He's a junior trainer," introduced Hou Lan.
"Hello, everyone," Su Bai also hurriedly greeted them.
"Hello." The other people responded politely before urging the two. "Since we're all here, let's go in quickly. I think we might really come up with something this time."
Hou Lan nodded and motioned him to follow quickly.
Su Bai silently followed these people and noted how they were rather indifferent toward him.
However, he did not even consider being involved and playing cultivation techniques with them. How many of them could be more impressive than his master?
"This isn't really a monster wilderness, is it?"
He looked at the world inside after entering the spatial door.
This was just a small space of several thousand acres and was a flat grassland except for a few small woods. Still, he took a fancy to a herd of dairy cows on the grassland.
Other than that, there was a kind of illusory crystal flower, which flickered from time to time, that gave him a feeling he could not place a finger on.
According to the others, this space belonged to the old man, Tong Xing. The old man arranged a place for Hou Lan and Su Bai and left after telling them about a banquet in the evening.
"What are you doing here? I don't think that there's anything peculiar about this place?"
Once everyone else was gone, he asked the man.
"No, there's a secret here. You should be able to see it tomorrow; it'll surely shock you," refuted Hou Lan.
"What secret?"
"It's not a good time for me to tell you now, but you'll find out tomorrow. I actually didn't want to come out, either, but this place is really amazing."
"Okay, then. I'll wait and see. Just call me if you need anything; don't be afraid of using me."
Su Bai stopped asking further and turned around to return to his room.
Inside, he released the Little White Fox.
"Weep weep…"
Ah Bai, this place is so peculiar. There's a dreamy atmosphere in the air. I feel like I may comprehend the profundity of fantasy if I stay here for a while.
The Mewling Fox lifted its head and sniffed the air, sending a telepathic message to him.
"Can you comprehend the profound meaning of fantasy after a long time?" he asked in surprise. Was this place really so magical? The cub was also surprised because it could not perceive anything.
The Little White Fox nodded and motioned for him to release it. It wanted to take a closer look at this place.
"Okay, let's go out for a stroll."
Nodding, he released the baby fox and the cub.
"Hing!"
According to its observations, this was probably the place where a certain powerful fantasy predecessor had died. Hence, all the power of dreams and fantasy had spilled from a certain direction.
If it could get closer to that location and absorb the power of those dreams, then it might be able to understand the profound meaning of fantasy.
The baby fox pointed to a tall bell tower in the distance.
"Okay, I understand. Let me see if there's any way." He nodded.
The Mewling Fox, which had been in its egg for thousands of years, was extremely wise. It had even comprehended the most important characteristic of the Thousand-face Fox and was very close to understanding the profound meaning of fantasy.
On the other hand, the other pets, which had only been in the world for a short time, took a longer time to understand the profound meaning of things.
...
"Let's go for dinner. Teacher Tong is calling us over." Hou Lan walked over and announced.
"Okay, let's go." Su Bai nodded.
Along the way, the young man seemed to hesitate before he finally said, "Su Bai, we have to appear tougher later. Many of them are from royal Pet Tamer families, and although our family has somewhat declined, we still can't degenerate our parents' glory."
"Brother Hou, your family is also royalty? Can you tell me more about the specifics?"
Upon hearing this, Su Bai was slightly surprised. He did not expect the Hou family to have such a deep background and even seemed that it was not small.
"Of course. The original intention of the current Pet Alliance was to deal with monster invasions and restrain the behavior of Pet Tamers, but after more than a hundred years of development, when its forces have grown too powerful, it actually produced far-reaching effects on various countries.
"It may not be apparent to ordinary people and may seem no different from before, but the effect is very obvious to professional Pet Tamers.
"In particular, the alliance's control over the resources of royal Pet Tamers makes it unique in the world.
"On the surface, the Pet Alliance is divided among the chairman, the chairman committee, the security council, the united front bureau, the exploration bureau, etc.
"But the main four factions are in fact the Pet Gymnasium, the royal Pet Tamer families, the labor union of cultivator related associations, and the pet administrations of various countries.
"All the royal Pet Tamers' resources are in the hands of these four factions.
"Over the years, the royal Pet Tamer families have gained control over many space cracks through their operations and have gained increasingly louder voicing power.
"Now, the interior is mainly divided into five elite families, eight front-ranking aristocratic families, etc.
"The Hou family was originally a front-ranking aristocratic family, just a step away from becoming elite. Over the years, following my grandpa's death in a monster wilderness, our family started going downhill.
"My sister and I didn't want to be involved in the vortex of fighting between the families, so we built our own business and established the Blue Moon Cultivation House.
"Elder Tong is a senior egg appraiser from the Egg Appraisal Association. All the youngsters in the alliance were invited by him here, so there's no need to be afraid."
Hou Lan spoke at length. Although he said not to be afraid, Su Bai felt that the young man looked very nervous.
"Don't worry; I understand." He nodded, having more or less understood the intricacies in the alliance. He was just surprised to find out the other's background.
The evening banquet was quite sumptuous, and there were even a large amount of spiritual fruits meant for the pets. The cub and the baby fox ate so much that their bellies were almost bursting with food.
After dinner, the old man stood up and smiled. "Today, we will hold a treasure appraisal session as usual. As long as everyone can guess my treasure, you can take it and leave. Everyone has only three chances."
"Teacher Tong is really too generous. I didn't have enough knowledge last year, but I can definitely guess one of them this year. I've coveted Elder Tong's treasures for a long time, especially those pet eggs."
The blonde youth next to Su Bai chuckled.
"I feel the same. I just want Elder Tong's pet egg. You must know that his collection of eggs are all amazing."
A girl in men's clothing also nodded in agreement.
"Hahaha! Then come with me, everyone."
Elder Tong laughed and brought everyone to a well-decorated storage room. Rows of shelves were filled with various treasures, ores, skill jades, pet eggs, spiritual plants, et cetera.
Su Bai followed Hou Lan and sat down at a rectangular conference table.
Once everyone had settled down, the old man chuckled and said, "As a senior and the owner, I'll take out seven articles to start the ball rolling. These are some good things I've collected this year."
When he finished speaking, two Dream Butterflies beside him brought over the first treasure. It was a white pet egg which seemed to be dyed green.
"This is the first treasure. Guess what pet egg it is; the more detailed, the better," said the old man. He then sat down and waited for everyone to speak.
Su Bai examined the object. A total of thirteen people, including him, in the room fell silent as they carefully scrutinized the item. All were lost in thoughts. The room was so quiet that even a pin drop could be heard.
The appraisal of an egg was only a matter of seconds for Su Bai. This was a hermaphroditic Double-headed Dragon Lizard monster. Its characteristic was exchanging damage, and it was an extinct monster.
He did not answer immediately, though, and waited to see the appraisal level of others, instead.
