New Skill (Seeking Collection! Seeking Follow-up!)

"Outrageous! Absolutely outrageous! Even young people should respect their elders!"

Xiao Xi stood on the table, looking indignantly at Huohuo, whose leaves were drooping.

Xiao Xi was genuinely angry. She had suffered losses at the hands of this grass three times in a row.

Even a clay Buddha has three parts anger, let alone her.

"I'm so sorry, Teacher Xiao Xi." Although Zhou Lu had happily pocketed the three bottles of low-level growth potions again, he felt genuinely apologetic when he recalled the scene at the time.

Hearing Zhou Lu's apology, Xiao Xi's anger subsided considerably. She crossed her arms and sat down on the table, looking at Zhou Lu curiously. "How come you're living in the faculty dormitory?"

Before Zhou Lu could answer, a look of realization dawned on her face, and she said apologetically, "Ah, sorry, I shouldn't have asked that."

Zhou Lu didn't really mind this. After all, he didn't have much affection for his former self's father. It was more the sense of responsibility brought about by morality, feeling that as a son, he should appear sad and also investigate the cause of his father's death.

"Speaking of which, why did Teacher Xiao Xi suddenly move here? I remember the next room was always empty."

"The previous room was uninhabitable." Mentioning this, Xiao Xi became agitated. "The professor next door is from the Seedling Cultivation Department. It was one thing when he was researching in the lab, but now he's researching in his own residence too. He's a guy who pursues pure natural methods, and the smell... it's nauseating just remembering it."

Zhou Lu didn't know how to comment on a seed disliking the smell of fertilizer, so he could only keep nodding in agreement with Xiao Xi.

"I'm still a little baby, you know. I need a stable environment and plenty of sleep to nurture my new life." As she said this, Xiao Xi glared at Zhou Lu. "Who knew the next door neighbors would be you two life-destroyers."

"Nurture new life?"

"That's right. I'm a seed, after all." Xiao Xi proudly lifted her head. "Any Knowledge Fairy with a bit of ambition hopes to sprout. Perhaps one day I'll become a new Seeking Dao Wood."

"What would happen to you if you sprouted?" Zhou Lu asked curiously.

It was already magical enough that the seeds of the Seeking Dao Wood could transform into the appearance of fairies. What would happen after they sprouted? Would they directly evolve into Spirit Beasts, or would they revert to ordinary plants and undergo another extraordinary transformation?

Xiao Xi blinked her eyes, her professional alertness immediately kicking in. She rubbed her fingers together towards Zhou Lu and said, "This question falls under the knowledge of the Seeking Dao Wood, so it'll cost extra."

"Then never mind, I'm not that interested," Zhou Lu said decisively.

"Tch, stingy." Xiao Xi said, looking at Huohuo, who had already crawled out of Zhou Lu's arms and was moving freely on the ground. "Speaking of which, your Spirit Pet is quite a genius. It only learned these two skills today, and it's already mastered them?"

Zhou Lu smiled and said, "It's quite motivated."

"That's a good thing. However, with just these two skills, it'll still be very difficult to pass the combat exam." As she spoke, Xiao Xi produced a pile of skill cards and grinned at Zhou Lu. "Don't you have three Fairy Coins left? You can exchange them for new skills from me. How about combat skills? I have many suitable ones here."

"I want to train combat skills myself."

Zhou Lu refused. However, Xiao Xi was right; it was indeed time to let Huohuo learn new skills.

If he couldn't get Huohuo to learn an attack skill before the exam, it could still perform well in the exam with support skills.

But the attribute bonuses from general skills were always a huge drawback.

Zhou Lu thought for a moment and asked, "Are there any support skills for plant-type Spirit Beasts that don't consume attribute bonuses?"

Xiao Xi was still very easy to talk to. Although it was past working hours, she diligently began to offer Zhou Lu suggestions after hearing his question. "If it doesn't consume attribute bonuses... can control-type skills work?"

Zhou Lu's eyes lit up. "That would be even better!"

Xiao Xi nodded, raised her hand, drew out a card from the pile in front of her, and then clicked to enlarge it, pushing it towards Zhou Lu. "[Entangling Vines], a C-grade general skill. It causes a large number of vines to grow from the main body or a branch to entangle the target and slow down its actions. The prerequisite skills are exactly [Vine Step] and [Mad Growth]."

Seeing this skill, Zhou Lu's eyes immediately lit up, and he said sincerely, "This is exactly what I needed, thank you!"

[Entangling Vines] would be an excellent combination with Headbutt, making it the most suitable skill for Huohuo.

It was no wonder that Knowledge Fairies were so important in the modern beast-taming system.

If it weren't for Xiao Xi's previous advice, and if Zhou Lu had chosen himself, he might have opted for other, seemingly more powerful skills, rather than choosing the foundational skills like [Vine Step] and [Mad Growth].

If that were the case, Huohuo wouldn't have learned to walk on its own at the first tier, let alone learn [Entangling Vines].

"One Fairy Coin, thank you for your patronage!" Xiao Xi took out her small cash box and shook it at Zhou Lu.

Zhou Lu chuckled, took out his phone, and scanned Xiao Xi's body. An image of a Fairy Coin appeared above the cash box, even making a clinking sound as it dropped into the box.

Hearing the commotion from Xiao Xi's side, Huohuo, with a hint of curiosity, crawled back into Zhou Lu's arms and extended its new sprout to curiously examine Xiao Xi.

Where was this strange clinking sound coming from?

Zhou Lu handed the skill card for [Entangling Vines] that he had just purchased to Huohuo, letting it hold and absorb it. "Speaking of which, do you know about Headbutt-type skills?"

"Didn't you say you wanted to train combat skills yourself?" Xiao Xi asked doubtfully, but then summoned six skill cards. "I have six types of Headbutt skills here."

"I don't know the training method," Zhou Lu coughed twice and said.

Xiao Xi rolled her eyes. "Two Fairy Coins, thank you~!"

"Why is it more expensive than the skill cards!"

"Because skills trained are stronger than general skills from skill cards."

"Aren't there any that don't charge money..."

Xiao Xi wagged her finger and said, "No, all my services are paid. If you weren't a student, even talking to me would cost money."

"Huh? Is there such a thing?"

"Because every word I say has value," Xiao Xi said proudly, with her hands on her hips.

"So..." As she spoke, Xiao Xi extended her hand to Zhou Lu, in a "give me money" gesture. "Are you buying? Two Fairy Coins, and it's already a great deal."

"Forget it, I'll find another way," Zhou Lu said, wondering if there was any relevant information for sale on the forums.

"Tch, stingy," Xiao Xi said again.

Huohuo seemed to understand Xiao Xi's words, knowing she was teasing its master, and extended its vines once more.

This time, Xiao Xi had learned her lesson. With a swish, she flew to the doorway, opened the door, and flew outside. "If there's nothing else, I'll be going now."

As she spoke, she made a face at Zhou Lu and left him with her parting words:

"You students are something else. Do you buy textbooks just for exams? What a waste."

With that, she closed Zhou Lu's door.