Li Shu had made a run for it.
Of course, officially, he had gone home to rest for a while. After all, he had spent over a week at Su Ping's place and was due for a trip home.
Su Ping felt rather regretful. Good labor like that was hard to come by.
Still, it was only natural.
How could becoming a Breeder possibly be easy? If he had not grown up alongside the Forest Wolves at his family's breeding base-and had a cheat to boot-becoming a Breeder would have been harder than climbing to heaven.
When Li Shu's father, Li Senlin, arrived, however, he was exceedingly polite. He even wanted to give Su Ping a hefty cash gift, but Su Ping declined.
He got along well with Li Shu, and Li Shu had helped him out for so many days. Even though Su Ping had helped the Falling Seed Pine, Pinecone, level up and even learn the Pinecone Cannonball skill, he had also gained what he wanted.
That was enough.
It left Li Senlin feeling rather embarrassed.
Li Shu's departure did not affect Su Ping too much.
Although he now had to make and answer calls and receive customers himself, the busiest rush had already passed. Besides, the owners who had confirmed training for their pet beasts had all paid their deposits and joined the training queue.
After the first few days of throwing itself into disarray, Woodheart had now more or less gotten onto the right track.
Still, Su Ping gave Li Shu full credit for the results of his work.
No wonder the kid had been worked numb with exhaustion. An entire bundle of Wolf Smoke Grass had been stirred all afternoon, undergoing several hours of processing before becoming the bucket of dark green liquid before him.
It gave off an indescribably foul, peculiar odor.
Even Su Ping wanted to keep a respectful distance from the stuff.
An experiment was an experiment, though. Despite his revulsion, Su Ping went ahead with it.
Having witnessed the effects of Wolf Smoke Grass-and learned that they were not all beneficial-Su Ping naturally could not use his own Forest Wolves as test subjects.
Instead, he simply bought a few laboratory mice.
The results left him even more speechless.
Not only did the mice show no aversion to it, but as rodents, they actually seemed quite fond of it. Yet after consuming it, they showed not the slightest change or difference.
In fact, after being fed for two days, they had even gotten a size plumper.
Su Ping was rather speechless.
However, as he had said before, he could not use his own Forest Wolves as test subjects, nor could he afford the extravagance of buying a wolf-type pet beast solely for his experiments.
The Wolf Smoke Grass experiments could only be put on hold for now, to resume once he had the necessary means.
With Li Shu gone, Su Ping no longer had to feel constrained in what he did.
Over the past few days, he had not only completed the training of all the customers' Forest Wolves, but also received ten million in payments. Even after taxes, he still had a hefty sum of nearly nine million.
Unfortunately, a sum that large could no longer pluck at Su Ping's heartstrings. After all, the outrageous price Vice President Liu had sent him-three hundred million for a single piece of laboratory equipment-had made him realize that, in the world of pet beasts, this little bit of money truly amounted to nothing.
Meanwhile, apart from Wooden Head, a full twenty-five Forest Wolves, plus his own Xiao Qing-twenty-six Forest Wolves in total-had all completed their Woodheart training!
What did that mean? There was naturally no need to spell it out.
However, although they had all completed their skill training, Su Ping knew this was only the beginning.
The distinctive, coordinated fighting style of the brothers Zhang Wen and Zhang Wu's pet beasts had given Su Ping a direction and a method for his training.
Combat involving his own contracted pet beasts was one aspect, but if possible, he also wanted to train these pet beasts to fight as a group.
Generally speaking, Beast Tamers devoted most of their energy to their soul-bound pet beasts.
The reason was simple: ordinary Beast Tamers could not bring many wild pet beasts along with them.
Su Ping was different, however. He had the pet beast home talent. As long as a pet beast's level did not exceed his own, and his Beast Taming Space had room, he could take it with him.
Under those circumstances, with the Myriad Spirits Codex also helping him win these pet beasts' affection and direct them, he could absolutely try to forge a different path as a Beast Tamer.
However, methods for training group combat were relatively difficult to come by, and Su Ping had been actively searching for them lately.
One slight disappointment was that the brothers Zhang Wen and Zhang Wu had never returned after that visit.
He did not know whether their family had refused to pay for such expensive training or whether there was some other reason, which left him feeling rather regretful.
If possible, he truly wanted to learn from them.
For now, however, he had something else to face.
Night.
Su Ping had never had the time to visit this stretch of the Spirit Creek River behind the woods.
Gone was the soothing daytime scenery of bright sunshine, lush green grass, and flowing river water.
Instead, it felt rather eerie.
As the trees and grass swayed, they looked like a throng of shifting ghostly shadows.
Su Ping stood there with Old Sha and Xiao Qing beside him.
"Is this the place?"
Su Ping asked softly.
Old Sha watched their surroundings with extreme vigilance. At the young master's question, the old wolf made no sound and merely nodded.
Over the past few days, the training of his Forest Wolves had advanced by leaps and bounds, and their skills had improved quite rapidly.
In fact, the ninth-tier Elite Forest Wolf's Tree Vine Strangulation, one of the primary skills being trained, had even risen to Mastery level.
Mind Communication allowed Su Ping to better prescribe the right remedy for each Forest Wolf's needs, bringing even greater benefits to their training.
However, it also gave him a deeper understanding of what Old Sha meant.
Previously, Old Sha had been exceptionally wary of the Spirit Creek River. At first, Su Ping had thought the old wolf's senses were mistaken, or that some fish had slipped through the net-a high-level aquatic pet beast born in the Spirit Creek River that had made a breakthrough.
Even when such aquatic pet beasts occupied a stretch of water, they rarely attacked creatures on shore.
But after gaining the Mind Communication talent, which let him grasp Old Sha's feedback more directly, he finally understood what the old wolf meant.
Over the past few nights, an unfamiliar presence had been appearing on the bank of the Spirit Creek River, right in his own backyard?!
Su Ping had to take this seriously. If some pet beast that had escaped detection really had come here, any trouble or disruption it caused could become a major headache.
However, after waiting a full hour, he had seen neither hide nor hair of anything. All he had gotten was a chill from the night wind.
Even Old Sha, faced with Su Ping's doubtful gaze, looked somewhat embarrassed and bewildered, despite being an old wolf nearly twice Su Ping's age.
Yet at that very moment, a ripple so faint it was almost invisible to the naked eye suddenly appeared in the distance on the Spirit Creek River.
The next instant, a tiny figure emerged from it.
Before Su Ping could even make out what it was, seeing only a streak of snowy white beneath the moonlight, Old Sha had already lunged!
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