Bing Liang and Zhuang Feng saw that Luo Yu and Director Zhang seemed to have other matters to discuss, so they didn't linger.
After leaving the arena, the two exchanged a glance. "Let's go report today's battle assignment to our teacher..."
Their teacher had assigned them to spar regularly, and after each beast battle, they had to reflect on it and sum up what they had learned.
Today, though, besides reflecting on their battle with each other, they would probably have to reflect on their battle with Luo Yu as well.
They wanted to ask their teacher why Luo Yu's Earth Penguin was different from what the books described.
In a residential neighborhood of Mirror Moon Town stood a detached, self-built house.
Wang Ze, a teacher at Mirror Moon High School, nodded silently as he listened to his two students' reports.
"Teacher, actually, something else happened today..." After finishing his usual summary, Bing Liang told him everything about their encounter with Luo Yu.
"You're saying he used an Earth Penguin to defeat you... without breaking a sweat?" Wang Ze was stunned.
Even if this student of his wasn't among the best freshmen, being easily defeated by an Earth Penguin was still too outrageous.
And what did he mean, Luo Yu had clapped his hands and a huge hole had appeared in the ground?
"That's really what happened. It didn't seem like an Earth Penguin. It was more like an earth-element monarch cub..." Zhuang Feng also found it bizarre.
"Well... perhaps he has some unique way of raising it. He is a biologist, after all..." Unable to explain it, Wang Ze could only attribute it to a biologist's special method of raising beasts.
"By the way, you said he's working with Director Zhang?" Wang Ze rubbed his chin and fell into thought.
Director Zhang was the third-ranking figure in the medical field on Mirror Moon Island.
Luo Yu was so young, yet he could work with Director Zhang as an equal?
Could it be that the Luo Yu Research Institute had produced some results?
This young man was no ordinary person.
"That's all."
"You two can go home."
After sending his students home, Wang Ze tidied up and went out himself.
Meanwhile.
After finishing his discussion with Director Zhang and arranging when the Ink Fish would start work, Luo Yu also planned to go home.
But as soon as he stepped out of the arena, he saw Wang Ze.
Recalling that he had just sparred with the man's students, Luo Yu guessed that he might have come specifically to wait for him.
"Scholar Luo Yu." Wang Ze came forward with a smile and greeted him.
"I'm Wang Ze, a teacher at Mirror Moon High School. We've met before."
"My student took the liberty of challenging you. As his teacher, I'd like to apologize on his behalf. Please forgive him. They've always been this rash."
"There's no need to be so polite, Teacher Wang," Luo Yu said. "Is there something else?"
Surely he didn't come just to apologize?
Wang Ze said, "Well, I'd like to ask you a favor..."
"A favor?" Luo Yu was taken aback.
"I wouldn't ask you to help for nothing. I'm willing to pay you."
"Let's hear it first."
"Let's talk in the pavilion in the park over there," Wang Ze said. "There's somewhere to sit."
After they walked to the pavilion in the small park outside the arena, Wang Ze explained why he had come.
"Well, Scholar Luo Yu, do you know about the Mirror Moon Celebration?"
The Mirror Moon Celebration...
"Of course." Luo Yu thought back.
To explain it, one had to start with the origins of Mirror Moon Island. It had originally been a perfectly ordinary little human-inhabited island in these waters. Faced with threats from the ocean, it had nearly vanished from the sea several times. At its lowest point, only a few hundred people remained on the island.
But when a Beast Taming fleet called the Mirror Moon came here and discovered its abundant, untapped land resources, the island's survivors were fortunate enough to find protection.
For the sake of those resources, Bai Ling, the Mirror Moon's leader, made Mirror Moon Island his own territory. Under the protection of its captain, Bai Ling, the island grew ever more prosperous and often took in people stranded at sea.
Later, the little island was renamed Mirror Moon Island for that reason.
Eventually, the Sea Tamer Alliance was established, and Mirror Moon Island joined it.
A long time had passed since then, and three major Beast Taming families had emerged on Mirror Moon Island: the Bai, Shui, and Yu families.
The Yu family was responsible for managing the island's internal affairs...
The Beast Tamers of the Shui family had an exceptional talent for combat. The captains and leaders of the Mirror Moon Armed Fleet were almost all Beast Tamers from the Shui family.
These two families kept affairs both inside and outside Mirror Moon Island in excellent order. They could be called the island lord's right and left arms.
As for the Bai family, though it had few members and rarely involved itself in affairs, its descendants had always held the position of island lord. That was because the Bai family held religious authority and was responsible for making offerings to the island's guardian deity.
And that guardian deity was the pet beast of Bai Ling, the Mirror Moon's first leader... a powerful life-form that had encountered a golden Sea of Evolution and possessed an extremely high species level and life level.
Because mutant beasts lived so long, it was still alive even after Bai Ling, Mirror Moon Island's first island lord, had died.
One could say that the reason Mirror Moon Island had stood here safe and sound, fending off Zombie Tides and outside enemies time and again, had never been the "Mirror Moon Armed Fleet," but this guardian deity of the island, who had lived for over a hundred years.
The Mirror Moon Giant Crocodile.
The Mirror Moon Celebration was, in fact, a festival for making offerings to the island's guardian deity.
It was held once a year and presided over by the island lord's family.
Every qualified faction could offer the guardian deity delicious food hunted from the ocean.
Outstanding freshman representatives from Mirror Moon High School could also show what they could do at the celebration.
In the end, both the Beast Tamer who offered the most delicious food and the member of the new generation who performed best at the celebration could receive the guardian deity's blessing.
The celebration was also one of the few opportunities ordinary islanders had... to see the island's guardian deity!
Besides that, students who performed well at the Mirror Moon Celebration might catch the eye of a major fleet and be invited to join its crew after graduation. It was an excellent stage on which to make themselves known.
Luo Yu asked, "Does this favor have something to do with the celebration?"
Wang Ze nodded. "Actually, before every celebration, Mirror Moon High School selects some outstanding freshmen to represent the school and show what they can do at the Mirror Moon Celebration."
"For the school's students, being able to appear at the Mirror Moon Celebration is a very important credential."
"If they can appear there, it will be a great help to their future employment and prospects."
"And the school's method of selecting outstanding freshmen is very simple: their skill in beast battles."
"That's also why I often take them into the wild for real combat and have them come to the arena for extra training... But the families of these three students of mine are all rather poor. Even though I usually hold them to very strict standards, they still fall somewhat short of becoming student representatives..."
"So, I'd like to ask for your help, Scholar Luo Yu. Could you become their 'extracurricular teacher' and help me train them? I'll pay you accordingly."
Luo Yu pondered for a moment, then looked up in puzzlement. "As a teacher, you don't have to go this far, do you? Aren't they just your students?"
"And you're a schoolteacher. Do you really need to ask an apprentice Beast Tamer like me for help...?"
Wang Ze gave a rueful smile. "There's something you don't know. These three students... are all orphans. Their parents and I were once crewmates in the same fleet. After it disbanded, I came to teach at the school and applied to become their teacher. Their parents and I once made a promise: if any of us died at sea... the others would lend their children a hand."
"Unfortunately, my abilities are limited..."
"Scholar Luo Yu, though you're an apprentice Beast Tamer, you're a genius. I believe in you."
He genuinely believed Luo Yu was extraordinary. Whether it was his skill at catching Honey Water Bees, the method he had used to raise his Earth Penguin to that level, or the fact that he could discuss a partnership with Director Zhang, all of it showed that Luo Yu was no ordinary person.
A biologist...
As a biologist and the child of two biologists, Luo Yu surely belonged to a family with extraordinary insights into Beast Taming, Wang Ze felt, insights ordinary Beast Tamers like them couldn't match.
If his students could receive Luo Yu's guidance, it would surely benefit them greatly. To be honest, Wang Ze couldn't even get in touch with the heads of the other biological research institutes, but he had met Luo Yu twice now. They had quite a connection.
"I see..." Luo Yu nodded. So that was how it was. He hadn't wanted to help at first, but after hearing that all three students were orphans, he asked one more question about this class, which had so much human warmth: "What can you pay me, Teacher Wang?"
Wang Ze said, "A year's salary..."
"Besides that, I can offer my labor. I saw you go into the wild yourself to catch Honey Water Bees, Scholar Luo Yu. For odd jobs like that in the future, I'll be there whenever you call. I can still handle the mutant beasts on the island easily enough."
Luo Yu pondered for a moment. To be honest, if this had been before, he would have been short of labor. But now, whenever he needed something, he could just ask the bureau chief.
As for the salary, though it sounded vulgar, Luo Yu had to admit that money was indeed useful. Even if he could apply for research funding, that was meant for research. He couldn't keep using it every time he went to a fancy restaurant for a luxury seafood set meal...
Most importantly...
This matter could also provide Luo Yu with manpower, because there was still a research project at his institute that he hadn't started.
It was the Honey Water Bee Stinging Training Method.
If he only let the Honey Water Bees sting himself and July, he would have too little experimental data. With more guinea pigs, the data sample would be more substantial.
Once he had results, it would also be easier to have the bureau help him purchase large numbers of Honey Water Bees, just as it had purchased the Ink Fish.
These days, as the number of stings increased, the strengthening effect had grown weaker and weaker. To improve it, he would probably have to work on both the Honey Water Bees' levels and their numbers. Luo Yu had also looked for other hives, but unfortunately, he hadn't found any more with a strengthening talent.
There was only so much one person could do. If he again had the island help with the search, it would probably go much faster.
And students were undoubtedly the most suitable test subjects for this project... No matter the faction, education was always given the greatest importance.
"I can't guarantee that I can make them outstanding student representatives of the school..."
"That's all right. If they don't make it, it can only mean they lack the talent and opportunity." Wang Ze said, "I'll have done my utmost to secure a good future for them."
"All right, it's a deal," Luo Yu said. "I'll devise a new training plan for them."
From the battle just now, Luo Yu could tell that the two students had already taken quite a few detours. From here on, even if he merely gave them some verbal pointers, they would definitely make great progress.
"By the way, are they afraid of pain? They won't mind suffering a few minor injuries and enduring some hardship, will they?"
"That's nothing..." Teacher Wang said. How hard could training be? Out at sea, mutant beasts really will attack them!