Inside the manor at the Wood Heart Pet Beast Breeding Base.
The door to the magic potion workshop opened.
Old Sha wore a grimace as he stared into the smoke-filled workshop.
Old Sha had no idea what his young master was doing.
But this process, which looked like boiling shit, made Old Sha question for the first time whether Su Anyong had made the right choice by leaving and handing their Pet Beast Breeding Base over to his young master.
This was now the most agonizing and conflicted moment of his life as a wolf.
He was terrified that the fumes would harm his young master.
If Su Ping passed out inside, or even died from the stench, he would have no way to explain it to Su Anyong.
But with the magic potion workshop's door open, the overpowering stench was no longer merely an assault on the nose.
It stung the eyes, too!
Wolfhound-type pet beasts had exceptionally keen senses of smell.
One could only imagine the immense courage-and life-or-death bond-it took for Old Sha, a commander-rank pet beast, to stand at the workshop's entrance and endure that pungent odor while watching Su Ping inside.
Su Ping stood on a platform, holding a Medicine Pestle half a meter long.
The heating unit beneath the furnace kept its interior at a constant eighty degrees.
Fully equipped with a gas mask and an oxygen tank, he peered into the billowing smoke inside the Medicine Furnace.
At that moment, Su Ping praised Blue Star's technology.
If this had been ancient times, when he would have had to brew the magic potion himself without any of this equipment, Su Ping had reason to suspect that even someone who knew the recipe would not have been able to produce much of this perfect "Woodheart" magic potion.
The great technological advances of the new era were truly wonderful.
Not only had they brought expensive mechanical pet beasts into existence, they had also made life easier for Beast Tamers and Breeders.
All the materials and medicinal ingredients set to one side had already been thrown in.
All the wolf smoke grass had gone in as well.
Only the final stage remained.
A moment later, amid the billowing smoke, Su Ping turned the Medicine Furnace's temperature dial, instantly raising it to one hundred and twenty degrees.
Stirring rapidly with the Medicine Pestle had left his arms aching.
Fortunately, after officially becoming a Beast Tamer, each increase in rank also strengthened his body to some extent.
Before that, Su Ping could never have endured such an intensive production process.
With the sudden rise in temperature and the rapid stirring, bubbles began gurgling through the dark green sludge at the bottom, which had already turned into a thick slurry.
An even more indescribable stench rose from it.
The gas mask blocked the odor, while the smoke slowly dissipated. Through his mask, Su Ping watched the liquid at the bottom.
At last, after Su Ping's arms had gone numb, the thick liquid was fully formed.
Su Ping jumped straight down from the platform, went to the outlet beneath the Medicine Furnace, and took out the container he had prepared earlier.
Dark green liquid immediately began flowing slowly from the outlet valve, resembling a somewhat diluted loquat syrup.
Su Ping finally breathed a sigh of relief.
After switching off the Medicine Furnace and turning on its self-filtering function, Su Ping left the workshop with the tightly sealed potion.
Through his gas mask, Su Ping saw Old Sha's resentful expression.
"Is it really that bad?"
Only then did Su Ping belatedly remove his gas mask.
Then he instinctively sniffed.
In less than a tenth of a second, Su Ping hastily pressed the oxygen mask at his side to his face.
He rubbed Old Sha, who looked even more resentful.
"Old Sha, sorry you had to put up with that. But don't worry. Once you eat this tomorrow, you'll understand how good it is!"
Looking at his utterly confident young master, Old Sha glanced again at the little bottle of dark green "essence" that Su Ping had spent hours brewing as though he were boiling shit.
Old Sha's gaze was complicated. Never had he imagined that the young master he had watched grow up would one day try to poison him.
Feed him shit?!
And do it right in front of him, at that.
Old Sha swallowed, a remarkably clear gulp sounding from his massive wolf body.
Then, before Su Ping could react, he bolted straight into the base's woods, running so fast that not even his shadow remained in sight.
Su Ping scratched his head and looked again at the improved "Woodheart" magic potion in his hand.
Was it really that bad?
He belatedly turned to glance at the magic potion workshop, which was still giving off a foul stench. Remembering the smell from earlier, he shuddered involuntarily.
Ugh... that certainly woke him up!
Although this stuff really did sting the eyes, it still had to be eaten.
Just not now.
According to the magic potion recipe, after the final brewing stage, it still needed to cool and set into a jelly before it was truly complete.
After working all day, Su Ping could not be bothered to think any more about it. Once the bottle of Woodheart had cooled closer to room temperature, he put it in a refrigerated storage box and returned to his room.
Xiao Qing was still sleeping in the Beast Taming Space.
After becoming his contracted pet beast, Xiao Qing could benefit greatly from Su Ping's own cultivation level, accelerating the pet beast's growth.
Xiao Qing was at precisely that stage of rapid growth.
When he opened his phone, the first thing he saw was a notification from his class group chat.
The moment Su Ping tapped into it, a message appeared:
"I heard our class rep contracted a Red Fang Tiger with commander-rank species potential. Awesome! Guess we'll be counting on you to look out for us in the future! @Zhou Shuchen"
Barely a few seconds after that message was sent, another appeared:
"It's all right. I just got lucky. Director Zhang helped me find a seller. The down payment cost two million, though. Sigh, time to start paying off the loan. Still, it was worth it. I've only had the Red Fang Tiger under contract for half a month, and it's already learned Flame Pounce. Ordinary pet beasts just can't compare with that kind of talent."
Although it sounded self-deprecating, every word was clearly steeped in pride.
It was none other than their class representative, Zhou Shuchen, who had even changed his profile picture to a crimson tiger cub.
Clearly, even in a different world, class group chats were still the same as ever.
The topic had simply changed to contracted pet beasts.
Still, a Red Fang Tiger with commander-rank species potential really was quite good.
A down payment of two million was not expensive.
But Zhou Shuchen came from an ordinary family. Even with his connection to Director Zhang, the school's dean, the size of that loan had to be staggering.
The guy certainly had guts.
Come to think of it, this class representative supposedly had the relatively rare talent "Fire Affinity," which could boost the combat strength of fire-type pet beasts to some extent. It was a talent particularly well suited to becoming a combat Beast Tamer.
No wonder he and his family had probably emptied their savings to take out a loan for this Red Fang Tiger as his first pet beast.
"Is Su Ping the only one in our class who still hasn't contracted a pet beast?"
Someone suddenly asked.
"Young Master Su has high standards. Director Zhang kindly introduced him to a Scythe Giant Centipede with commander-rank species potential before, and he even turned that down."
Zhou Shuchen's Red Fang Tiger profile picture flashed again.
Su Ping raised his eyebrows. Back in school, this fine class representative had always been polite to him. They had not been especially close, but he had never done anything to offend Su Ping, either.
After all, although Su Ping did not come from a family of powerful Beast Tamers, his family was reasonably well-off.
Their class representative was the sort who always knew how to work people.
Now that they had graduated, he was making these snide remarks in the class group chat. Was he finally showing his true colors?
Before you continue