Fish King in the Breeding Farm

On the churning sea, a cool and aloof young woman in a snow-white coat put away her phone. Her long black hair streamed in the wind, and beneath her feet was not a ship's deck, but the back of a gigantic, dinosaur-like lizard covered in dark brown scales.

She raised her head. In the sky not far away, a giant bird with a wingspan of over five meters hovered in midair. Its feathers resembled translucent ice crystals, continuously scattering snowflakes below and freezing even the crests of the waves.

A blonde young woman with an aristocratic air stood on the giant bird's back. She wore a magnificent dress, held a gem-studded folding fan, and smiled faintly.

"Boyfriend?"

"Junior."

Su Muli answered indifferently.

She cared about Jiang Xing's studies because she saw her former self in him.

Born into poverty, gifted, and hardworking...

Back then, her mentor and senior students had pulled her forward and changed her fate.

Now that she had gone ahead, she wanted to extend a hand and help her juniors along as well.

"Really? I don't believe you."

The blonde young woman opened her folding fan and hid her smile behind it.

Su Muli raised an eyebrow and spoke.

"Storm Sea Lizard, Gale and Rainstorm!"

The winds and clouds shifted, towering waves surged, and battle erupted in an instant!

In the laboratory, Jiang Xing had no idea that Senior Sister Su was engaged in a tense and thrilling battle.

However, the sound of waves coming through the phone indicated that Senior Sister Su was busy overseas.

Therefore, Jiang Xing did not stubbornly wait for the move data to arrive. Instead, he packed up and left Yuzhong University.

With the resources and move issues resolved, all that remained was the [Golden-Veined Koi] itself!

As a common Ornamental Pet Beast, Golden-Veined Koi were inexpensive and popular, practically a staple of aquarium stores.

They even had their own dedicated area in Water-Type breeding farms.

As a student of Water-Type Beast Research, Jiang Xing was very familiar with Li Shun, the owner of an aquatic breeding farm—

In fact, Li Shun had once been a Water-Type Beast Research student as well. However, his Talent had not been sufficient, and he could not keep up with the coursework. In the end, he transferred to Water-Type Pet Beast Breeding and opened a Water-Type Pet Beast breeding farm after graduation.

He still regarded himself as Dr. Xu's student, believing that the Doctor had helped him greatly. He treated Su Muli, Jiang Xing, and the others as his junior schoolmates and was exceptionally warm toward them.

At Li Shun's breeding farm, Jiang Xing bought eighty Golden-Veined Koi at the cost price of 800 yuan each, spending a total of 64,000 yuan.

Moreover, these Golden-Veined Koi all had fairly good Talent quality. Outside, even the cheapest of them would cost at least 3,000 yuan apiece!

"I owe another favor..."

Jiang Xing had no choice. Of the 500,000 yuan in research funding he had previously applied for from Dr. Xu, less than 50,000 remained.

Even including the scholarships Jiang Xing had saved up and the wages he earned from part-time work, he only had around 300,000 yuan left in total.

If he did not economize, even with the Berry Blender reducing cultivation costs, it would never be enough for him to complete his research.

So, Jiang Xing could only owe his seniors these favors for now and repay them gradually once he became successful.

Since he already owed them a debt of gratitude, Jiang Xing did not stand on ceremony anymore.

He asked Senior Li whether the breeding farm had any Golden-Veined Koi with a "Brave" personality—

Because the Golden-Veined Koi's racial level was too low, comparable to the weakest Bug Type Pet Beasts, it was only Low-Transcendental. Even after evolving, it could at most reach High-Level Extraordinary.

Its upper limit was simply too low. No one would cultivate them for battle; they existed only as Ornamental Pet Beasts.

Thus, after human selection, Golden-Veined Koi generally had personalities like "docile," "timid," and "introverted," making them suitable as pets.

In fact, even when Jiang Xing conducted experiments, since he was not a Beast Tamer and needed them to be easy to tame, he had selected only docile Golden-Veined Koi.

With all these factors combined, Brave Golden-Veined Koi could not be found on the market at all. He could only look for them at breeding farms.

Sure enough, Li Shun replied.

"Brave Golden-Veined Koi? We do have a few in the farm. They're defective products from breeding, and no one wants to buy them. We were planning to release them back into the wild..."

"If you want them, Junior, I'll give them to you for free."

"Thank you, Senior!" Jiang Xing said delightedly.

Free experimental Pet Beasts—what a bargain!

Li Shun asked curiously.

"Junior, do you want Brave Golden-Veined Koi because you have a new idea for a paper?"

"Mm." Jiang Xing nodded. "The Golden-Veined Koi I researched before were all docile, so the data wasn't comprehensive enough. I plan to add personality as an evolution variable and run another round of tests."

"As expected of Junior Jiang. That's quite an idea." Li Shun praised him, then said,

"In that case, there's a Fish King among the school of Golden-Veined Koi I bred. Do you want to take a look?"

"A Golden-Veined Koi... Fish King?"

Surprise appeared in Jiang Xing's eyes.

In the Beast Taming World, Pet Beasts generally possessed fairly high intelligence. Even an insect Pet Beast could understand human speech.

Such extraordinary intelligence naturally brought changes to a species.

Thus, wild Pet Beast groups often had figures such as "chiefs" and "lords."

They were the outstanding members of their kind, exceptional in both strength and potential.

In fact, the Pet Beast ranks listed by humans were based on this—

Transcendental, Commander, Monarch, Overlord, Legendary!

These were the five major racial levels of Pet Beasts.

However...

Group leaders usually appeared among wild Pet Beast populations.

Could a Fish King really emerge from a group of artificially bred Pet Beasts like Golden-Veined Koi—especially one of the most docile Pet Beast species?!

"That's right." Li Shun spoke with a hint of pride.

"It's also a Brave Golden-Veined Koi. Its Talent far surpasses those of its peers, and it's extremely Clever too. It knows how to hide itself."

"It was born several years ago. It was neither caught by customers nor released into the wild, instead secretly growing in the depths of the fish pond."

"Until one time, when a customer accidentally put a Jawbone Fish into the Golden-Veined Koi pond. It appeared, knocked the Jawbone Fish away, and protected the other Golden-Veined Koi. That was when we learned of its existence."

"From then on, it became the leader of the school. Every Golden-Veined Koi in the pond obeyed its orders and even took the initiative to protect it, keeping us from scooping it up."

"A Fish King like that is truly rare, so I kept it."

"Junior, since your paper requires Brave Golden-Veined Koi..."

"It's definitely an excellent choice!"

Jiang Xing's eyes lit up. It really was a Fish King!

With its help, the odds of Golden-Veined Koi evolving into dragon-type Pet Beasts could increase severalfold at the very least!

Just as he was growing excited, Jiang Xing noticed Li Shun's smile, and a thought stirred in his mind.

"Senior, if I want to obtain this Fish King, it probably won't be that simple, right?"

"Hehe." Li Shun smiled. "Many customers want it after hearing the story of this Golden-Veined Koi."

"But there's only one Fish King and too many people who want it. There's no way to divide it among them."

"So I made a wager: without using any outside help, whoever can earn this Fish King's recognition and make it willingly follow them can take it away for free!"