Cold Jade Snake

To make it easier to raise and cultivate different pet beasts, Water Mountain Breeding Base used source power and technology to create a variety of environmental zones, such as mountains, grasslands, deserts, lakes, snowy mountains, volcanoes, and more.

At that moment, in the sky above the snowy mountain zone, flake after flake of snow looked like tiny flowers made of fluff. When the wind blew, they danced like white butterflies.

Chen Wei threaded his way through the fine snow, leaving one footprint after another as he trudged forward with difficulty. At last, he reached a valley.

Within the valley, where fine snow drifted in abundance, three little snakes as white as jade were curled up resting. Beneath the bright sunlight and amid the falling snowflakes, their scales occasionally shimmered with faint rainbow light.

Two crystalline ice crystals grew from their heads, while their watery, lively eyes and slender bodies made them seem even more tiny and adorable. No wonder they had earned the name "Jade Snake."

Not far from the Cold Jade Snakes, a student wearing Water Mountain First High's uniform sat slumped on the ground. He had likely just failed to form a contract and suffered backlash, leaving his face somewhat pale.

A trace of unwillingness still lingered on his face as he sat dejectedly in the snow, his gaze fixed stubbornly on the Cold Jade Snakes.

The petite Cold Jade Snake impatiently opened its eyes, rose, and left. It slowly slithered into a corner of the snowy ground. Clearly, the humans' disturbance had put it in an irritable mood.

[Pet Beast Name]: Cold Jade Snake
[Pet Beast Attributes]: Ice, Psychic
[Species Rank]: High Earth-rank Extraordinary
[Species Skills]: Frost Breath, Ice Spike, Ice Armor, Ice Concealment, Charm
[Description]: An extraordinary snake that lives in snowy mountain regions. It boasts exceptional looks, extreme speed, and a proud temperament. For those without awakened psychic-type talents, the odds of successfully forming an initial contract with it are extremely low. It will ignore the commands of a master whose spiritual power is lower than its own. It excels at using Charm and freezing prey with Frost Breath.

As a High Earth-rank Extraordinary, the Cold Jade Snake's potential was outstanding even among high extraordinary-rank pet beasts.

Normally, a pet beast could only evolve by one major rank. Yet it possessed another, highly difficult evolution path, one that could leap across the top elite rank and evolve into the Yellow-rank Transcendent Commander, the Frost Jade Spirit Python.

However, given the Cold Jade Snake's proud nature, trying to contract it as an initial pet beast was simply far too difficult. But when faced with such a powerful pet beast, there would always be people who believed they were the exception.

After all, this might be the closest an ordinary beastmaster would ever come in their life to a Transcendent Commander-rank pet beast!

Few people would pass up such a rare pet beast, but the line at the entrance was truly far larger than Chen Wei had imagined.

It would probably take at least half an hour before it was his turn to form a contract. Chen Wei looked at the long queue surrounding the valley and let out a soft sigh.

Then he walked to the end of the line and joined it, continuing to observe the contracting attempts within the snowy valley.

The base staff member called out unhurriedly, "Next."

Chen Wei moved forward in an orderly fashion with the crowd. As expected, the students ahead who attempted to form contracts all failed one after another.

Even the students behind Chen Wei began speaking nervously among themselves.

"No way, there have already been dozens of them, and not a single one has succeeded. I knew the odds were low, but these are just hatchlings. Are they really this hard to contract?"

"Dozens is nothing. Add together the seniors from the previous six classes, and there were hundreds of them. Didn't they all fail too? A complete rout."

Listening to the whispers around him and watching person after person fail and leave, Chen Wei remained confident, but he could not help growing nervous as well.

He took a deep breath and shifted his gaze, only to meet the eyes of a girl in front of him who had turned around.

The girl wore First High's uniform and had a baby face. Her jet-black hair fell loosely to her shoulders, and beneath her bright, lively eyes was a fair, delicate face that looked especially pretty to Chen Wei.

"Hello." Chen Wei smiled awkwardly and greeted her without thinking.

The girl first puffed out her cheeks, then burst into laughter. She covered her mouth in embarrassment and said shyly, "Hello, classmate. My name is Yu Xiumin. I'm a student in Beastmaster Class One at Water Mountain First High."

"I'm Chen Wei, from Beastmaster Class Two at Second High," Chen Wei said softly.

"You need to be mentally prepared if you want to contract a Cold Jade Snake. Are you here to try your luck too?" Yu Xiumin asked with a generous smile.

"Yes. If it's you, your chances of success should be pretty good," Chen Wei said.

"Ah, you know me?" Yu Xiumin asked in surprise.

"I've long heard of you. Even at Second High, we've heard of Water Mountain First High's beastmaster genius who awakened the ice-type enhancement talent, [Blessing of Ice]."

"It's not that exaggerated. I just wanted to give it a try too. I heard that even high-level beastmasters have less than a fifty-percent chance of successfully contracting a Cold Jade Snake, so I wanted to try as well."

"That's true. We have two chances. If we don't try, we'll always be unwilling to accept it."

"Mhm. Without a psychic-type talent, relying solely on an ice-type talent makes it a little difficult. But it really is too adorable. I want a Cold Jade Snake so badly."

"Yeah. Even someone like me, who's scared of snakes, likes them. Still, beastmaster apprentices like us mostly have to rely on luck." Though he spoke modestly, Chen Wei was very confident in both his spiritual power and [Dragon Taming Power], or he would not have dared to come and contract a Cold Jade Snake.

As they spoke, the staff member suddenly called to the girl, "Next."

"It's my turn. I'll go give it a try first. We can talk later," Yu Xiumin replied softly.

Chen Wei nodded.

Yu Xiumin took a deep breath, her nervous expression carrying a hint of excitement, then walked unhurriedly toward the snowy valley.

"Hey, isn't that Yu Xiumin? If even she fails to form a contract, then maybe no one in this class will succeed either."

"She might be able to do it. She's from the Water Mountain Yu Family, and she awakened an ice-type enhancement talent too."

"Yeah, she's so pretty. Maybe the Cold Jade Snake will favor her."

"...You think pet beasts are as devoted as you are, only liking pretty people?"

Sure enough, people who were both good-looking and talented would always receive special treatment. Even the crowd watching and waiting nearby was full of optimism toward her.

Inside the valley, Yu Xiumin took a jade box from her spatial ring, removed an ice-type magic core from it, and placed it beside a petite Cold Jade Snake hatchling.

The little snake opened its adorably dazed eyes, slowly wrapped its body around the magic core, then contentedly narrowed its eyes.

Seeing this, Yu Xiumin was instantly overjoyed. On instinct, she activated her innate talent and began forging a beastmaster contract through her Origin Star.

She continuously poured her spiritual power and origin power into the Origin Star within her mind, condensing a blue five-pointed star formation around it.

The blue formation endlessly absorbed origin power and spiritual power within the Origin Star, rapidly growing larger and brighter. Gradually, it radiated dazzling light, until that light crossed through space and appeared before her.

The blue glow flew before the Cold Jade Snake, spiraling and winding around it before converging into a blue five-pointed star formation. At last, it connected to the head of the Cold Jade Snake, which was contentedly drawing in the magic core's energy.

The formation flickered with faint blue-white light from time to time, indicating that the beastmaster contract was being forged.

Sensing that the contracting process was going unexpectedly smoothly, Yu Xiumin could not help but let the corners of her lips curve upward, a pair of sweet dimples appearing on her cheeks.