The first week of training lasted seven days.
No one had a chance to rest. The second week's training began the very next day, and this week, they also had to attend academic classes at night. There were not many, but they were mandatory.
Only this week did the actual beast-taming combat lessons begin.
On the same open ground in the training field, Li Qingcheng had everyone bring out their tamed beasts.
No one had revealed their tamed beasts before, though most already knew what the others had.
But the few students with the best talents in the class had never revealed what their tamed beasts looked like.
The moment all the tamed beasts appeared, the gap between the students in the class was laid completely bare.
After all, a beast tamer's foundation was their own tamed beast!
Jiang Ziliu then saw everyone's tamed beasts appear beside them across the open ground.
The first person he noticed was Tang Yunu.
Tang Yunu's tamed beast was very unusual. Her talent was C- grade, allowing her to contract exotic beasts whose bloodline talents fell within the C-grade range.
Generally speaking, her tamed beast's maximum growth limit was peak Black Iron.
Her future path of growth carried great risks, because further improvement would require evolving her tamed beast.
And evolution was a process full of uncertainty. Even though beneficial evolution existed, there was still a very high possibility of failure.
Just like Tang Yunu herself: the Tang family had paid a hefty price for her awakening, but she had been unlucky and still ended up with a low-grade talent despite the relatively low odds.
Tang Yunu's tamed beast was a soccer-ball-sized Four-Tailed Silver-Eyed Eye Demon!
It was a special telekinetic tamed beast, belonging to a relatively rare branch of eye demon exotic beasts.
The Four-Tailed Silver-Eyed Eye Demon was essentially a giant eyeball.
Four silver tentacles grew from its back. One had mouthparts through which it ate.
Another was its excretory organ.
The remaining two tentacles served as the equivalent of human limbs.
Its telekinesis was strong, and its body was very light. It could use telekinesis to keep itself suspended in flight, and could fly for four or five hours without landing to rest.
Powerful recovery was another characteristic of this type of eye demon exotic beast.
As long as it had enough food, the telekinetic power it recovered could match what it consumed while hovering in flight.
It could also produce mental attacks such as psychic shrieks.
A Four-Tailed Silver-Eyed Eye Demon could generally only grow to peak Black Iron, but its greatest characteristic as an exotic beast was that it evolved and mutated somewhat more easily.
It had a 30% chance of evolving into an Eight-Tailed Golden-Eyed Eye Demon.
And an Eight-Tailed Golden-Eyed Eye Demon was S grade, capable of growing into a Gold Rank tamed beast.
Many people with low-grade talents chose this exotic beast as their tamed beast, gambling on that 30% chance of evolving it into an Eight-Tailed Golden-Eyed Eye Demon.
But these mental-type exotic beasts had keen perception, powerful escape abilities, and put up fierce resistance.
This made the chances of capturing their young alive very slim.
A high price was one characteristic of the Four-Tailed Silver-Eyed Eye Demon. Another was that the resources required for its evolution were also extremely expensive.
Thus, only those with low-grade talents from powerful or immensely wealthy families would choose it.
And even then, far too much of it was a gamble.
Families with no shortage of outstanding children would rather invest those resources in their more talented descendants.
Tang Yunu's choice of a Silver-Eyed Eye Demon clearly showed that she was unwilling to settle for mediocrity.
At the same time, she might also have understood that this poor choice was nevertheless her best choice for the future. There was no other.
Because the chances of other exotic beasts evolving were even more uncertain.
And better options were beyond what she could afford.
Tang Yunu had already raised it to eight-star Black Iron, and it would soon reach its growth limit.
When Jiang Ziliu sensed its level, he realized that Tang Yunu might have awakened her Contract Mark before turning sixteen.
That was how this Four-Tailed Silver-Eyed Eye Demon had managed to grow to this level.
But Black Iron Grade was rather low for her. She could only keep transferring between middle schools, waiting for the moment her Four-Tailed Silver-Eyed Eye Demon successfully evolved.
Only then would her fate within the Tang family truly take a turn for the better.
But she was not the only one with something unusual. The chubby Chen Zheng came from a very wealthy family, and his tamed beast was actually a One-Horned Dragon-Scale Snake, covered in scales and sporting a single horn!
Likewise, it was a serpentine exotic beast whose maximum growth limit was only Black Iron Grade.
But this One-Horned Dragon-Scale Snake possessed a faint trace of Horned Dragon bloodline!
That was what made it so special. Its combat power was greater, it carried a trace of draconic might, and its raw physical strength far surpassed that of ordinary exotic beasts.
If it could be raised using flesh and blood from high-quality dragon-blooded exotic beasts, its bloodline might improve, allowing it to evolve into an exotic beast with a higher-grade draconic bloodline.
Though low-grade, exotic beasts containing draconic bloodlines could only be encountered by chance, never sought at will.
When the other children of powerful families in the class saw this tamed beast, they looked at the fat boy as though they wished they could take his place.
The chances of such an exotic beast cub appearing were pitifully small.
The fact that the fat boy Chen Zheng had contracted one showed both that his family had money and that he had been lucky enough to encounter it.
Exotic beasts with draconic bloodlines like this were extraordinarily rare creatures.
Anyone who encountered one would never let it go.
By comparison, Hu Yifeng's tamed beast was somewhat more ordinary: a Blade-Legged Four-Winged Mantis.
This insect-type exotic beast was ferocious in battle, fearless of death, and possessed extremely powerful attacks. At the same time, both beneficial and harmful evolutions were highly likely.
It could be said that Hu Yifeng had placed greater emphasis on combat power when choosing his exotic beast, seemingly paying little attention to its evolutionary potential.
Most of the other students in the class had contracted exotic beasts such as tigers, wolves, bears, snakes, and bulls, all relatively common types.
Their resources were limited, and their exotic beasts were still juveniles at Gray Rock Grade.
But there were also lucky ones among the ordinary students.
For instance, a girl named Chen Ke had B-grade talent, yet had contracted a plant-type exotic beast called the Hundred-Blade Thorn Vine.
This tamed beast could grow to Silver Rank, but possessed formidable combat power.
When a peak Silver Rank Hundred-Blade Thorn Vine rooted itself in the earth to defend, its combat power could even rival that of an ordinary Gold Rank exotic beast!
Likewise, its evolutionary potential was quite strong. As long as its master dared to take risks, and as long as she succeeded, she might possess Gold Rank combat power in the future, or even the terrifying combat power of Diamond Rank.
Gold Rank already placed one among humanity's middle and upper ranks, while Diamond Rank represented humanity's true upper echelon of combat power!
It could be said that Chen Ke was quite lucky. To a certain extent, her future growth potential could already compare with people like Li Wanqiu.
Chen Ke had also been cautious, only revealing her tamed beast now.
When the teachers saw Chen Ke's tamed beast, their eyes lit up. They understood that this was another talent with special potential.
There was also a thin, small boy named Zhang Ziqi who had actually contracted an exotic beast called a Light Unicorn.
This exotic beast had very weak combat power and ordinary growth potential.
But it was a high-level healing creature, making him the kind of talent every faction and team desperately wanted.
It could be said that as long as Zhang Ziqi did well in his role as a healer and chose the right faction or team, he too would become a well-protected member of the upper ranks in the future.
Chen Ke and Zhang Ziqi were among the more outstanding ordinary students.
As for the few in the class with A-grade talent or higher, not one of their tamed beasts was ordinary.
With good talent, there was no need to ask. The school or certain factions would take the initiative to provide high-grade exotic beast cubs for them to contract.
There were two students with S-grade talent in No. 9 Middle School's special class, one boy and one girl.
Naturally, Li Wanqiu had the best talent: SS grade!
The boy with S-grade talent was named Li Chengqi. His tamed beast was a Frost Five-Stripe Sparrow capable of growing to Gold Rank, a small ice-attribute sparrow exotic beast with extremely formidable speed and combat power.
This Frost Five-Stripe Sparrow possessed terrifying combat power, but extremely low evolutionary potential.
From this, one could see that he was a very steady person who did not pursue anything too risky.
Though talented, he was not arrogant, and he was quite popular in class.
The other student with S-grade talent, Jiang Xiaoli, was a girl whose eyes sat atop her head. She looked down on everyone else in class and was especially jealous of the more talented Li Wanqiu, often having nothing pleasant to say.
Li Wanqiu simply paid little attention to her.
Her tamed beast was quite good, though: a Shadow Night Fox, an extremely cunning shadow exotic beast.
Everyone in class felt that Jiang Xiaoli and her tamed beast were the same kind of creature.
This girl was also one of the least popular people in the class.
But SS-grade Li Wanqiu's tamed beast was the most astonishing of all.
Her tamed beast was perched on Li Wanqiu's shoulder, a two-headed bird beast as pure as ice and lustrous as jade, with a pair of lovely white wings and seven long tail feathers as crystalline as jade.
Its pair of unusually clear eyes, shaped like crescent moons, made the entire beast look beautiful and noble.
The Two-Headed White Moon Ice Phoenix!
That was its name, a young exotic beast with a high-grade bloodline containing the blood of an Ice Phoenix.
It also possessed a portion of the power of the white moon. It could be called an ice-attribute phoenix exotic beast that also possessed the power of the white moon attribute.
With its phoenix bloodline and its foundation of dual ice and white moon attributes, this tamed beast drew everyone's attention the moment it appeared on Li Wanqiu's shoulder.
This tamed beast alone meant that, as long as Li Wanqiu did not fall, she would absolutely become a big shot among the upper ranks in the future!
Across the entire field, only Li Qingcheng showed no sign of surprise.
Jiang Ziliu could not help showing shock and envy either, but he soon steadied his emotions.
At the same time, he also noticed Li Qingcheng's reaction.
Jiang Ziliu understood that the school was absolutely incapable of obtaining a tamed beast cub like this.
It seemed highly likely that Li Qingcheng had helped Li Wanqiu obtain this tamed beast.
People with both backing and talent truly were different. Even at the starting line, they already stood at the summit above everyone else.
It could be said that after this final Two-Headed White Moon Ice Phoenix appeared, all the other tamed beasts present had flattened themselves against the ground, terrified of angering this little creature with its noble bloodline and equally terrifying combat power.
The special suppression caused by bloodlines among exotic beasts was extremely powerful.
Everyone in the class had revealed their exotic beasts, but Li Wanqiu had given them all an enormous fright.
Now, no matter the aspect, Li Wanqiu far surpassed everyone else in the class.