Beast Taming Begins with the Inner Circle of Pets

Is Chapter 39 about to be exposed?

By the time she arrived at the private room, most of the dishes had already been served. Originally, Zhu Zibin had suggested treating himself to a nice meal. However, they ran into Qiu Xiangjing when they went to book the private room. Hearing their suggestion, Qiu Xiangjing naturally couldn't let them pay for the meal, so she booked the room and dishes herself.

Before she even touched her chopsticks, Lin Manman briefly recounted her encounter with the Jinling University Affiliated High School team.

"There's nothing strange about that. I guess the higher-ups are nervous. With so many teams from other regions joining this year, it would be embarrassing for our local team if we didn't get a good ranking." Zhu Zibin was somewhat dismissive. It's just a junior professional tournament, why take it so seriously?

"It might also be related to past university rankings and the results of the intermediate professional competition. You might not have noticed, but the top three professional universities in the country are all from Beijing. Jinling University and Shanghai University have been alternating between fourth and fifth place, and the situation is similar in the intermediate professional competition. So if the Beijing universities outperform us in this competition, the higher-ups and the audience probably won't have too much of a problem. But if the Shanghai universities lose, we'll probably be criticized online for half a month." Xue Songwen explained to Lin Manman and Fang Yaqi with a smile.

Lin Manman and Fang Yaqi nodded in realization. So it was a feud caused by infighting within the school. Then she could understand.

"That's not all. I heard that in addition to the forces from various regions, the headquarters of the Imperial Capital Professional League has also sent people. They've been discussing the new secret realm with this branch for the past few days. If our local teams don't perform well in the competition at this time, it might affect the evaluation of the Jinling branch by the headquarters." Liu Ping had been gathering information about the competition these past few days and had also heard some other news.

"The Alliance headquarters is here? Isn't it just an A-level secret realm?" Zhu Zibin asked, puzzled.

"It seems the Alliance has changed its management system for secret realms this year. Previously, as long as the exploration team reached the corresponding level, they could freely explore any secret realm simply by reporting to the Alliance. Now, it seems that newly discovered secret realms require an Alliance exploration team to explore them before they can be freely entered." Xue Songwen said, opening his bracelet to search for information online. "I don't know if the Alliance is deliberately blocking information, but there is very little information available online about the secret realms that have appeared in the past two years."

Lin Manman couldn't help but think of her father, who had gone to the new secret realm. She only learned about it from her teammates, including Qiu Xiangjing, who had returned. The alliance later sealed off the secret realm, and she couldn't obtain any more information.

"No wonder those corporations and families haven't entered the secret realm yet. Letting the alliance headquarters explore first is like cutting off their flesh; it would be strange if they agreed. There's probably going to be a lot of wrangling. I wonder if we'll see them enter the secret realm after the competition ends," Zhu Zibin joked.

"I don't know if we'll even see them enter the secret realm, and whether we can hold out until the end of the competition is another question." Lin Manman shrugged. Feng Moyun made her feel a sense of crisis. The opponent had already summoned three spirit pets. If her aptitude was at level one and she could contract two spirit pets, then she still had one left to summon. If the opponent could contract three spirit pets at level one like her, with the wealth of the Feng family in the capital, six high-grade spirit pets would be a piece of cake.

The thought that Feng Moyun might have six spirit pets gave Lin Manman a headache. Their own team was already weak, relying entirely on their spirit pets to boost their combat power. If they encountered Feng Moyun's team, which had more spirit pets and a better overall setup, their chances of winning would be extremely slim.

"As long as we don't run into Feng Moyun before the finals, we still have a good chance of making it to the end," Xue Songwen said, pushing up his glasses.

"Okay! Stop! Hold on! Don't say any more!" Lin Manman quickly interrupted, this was the prelude to setting a flag.

"Alright, all the dishes are served. Let's eat properly first. After you finish eating, you can go back to your rooms and discuss things further." Qiu Xiangjing looked at this group of energetic children and seemed to see himself when he first joined the expedition team to explore the secret realm.

"Yes, let's eat well first. Eat and drink well, we still have a whole day to prepare tomorrow!" Fang Yaqi happily greeted everyone. She was extremely nervous today. Although she had always longed to become a professional and go on adventures and fight, that was just her fantasy. Today, she was finally facing a real battle.

Discussing intelligence at the dinner table seemed to slightly affect her appetite. Lin Manman didn't think too much about it and happily ate with everyone.

After the meal, on their way back to their rooms, Qiu Xiangjing and Lin Manman deliberately lagged behind the others.

"There are six spirit pet shops within a half-hour drive of the hotel. I checked them all after your competition. Get up early tomorrow, let's go out for a stroll." Qiu Xiangjing's main purpose in coming here was to accompany Lin Manman to the competition, and his secondary purpose was naturally to make some money during the competition. They don't come to the city center often, so selling a high-quality spirit beast once in a while wouldn't be too conspicuous, and they weren't worried about being recognized.

"Okay." Lin Manman was filled with anticipation, hoping that this would double her assets, which would basically fulfill her goal of opening a spirit beast shop.

The next morning, Lin Manman left a message for Fang Yaqi, then washed up and went out to meet Qiu Xiangjing. To avoid wasting time and arousing suspicion, the two bought the spirit beasts without even negotiating prices and left immediately. They quickly browsed all six shops, then Lin Manman bought all the awakening materials and skillfully awakened the bloodlines of all the spirit beasts on the way. Although the quality was good, unfortunately, none of them possessed talent, and there were no more instances of ancestral regression.

Lin Manman was happily estimating her earnings, unaware that a figure had been quietly following her ever since she left home that morning.

After Qiu Xiangjing took Lin Manman back to the hotel, he took the evolved spirit beast and planned to sell it at a spirit beast shop further away, in order to avoid being discovered by others that the two of them were acting together.

As Lin Manman happily hummed a song as she returned to her room, she ran into Liu Ping and the other two who had brought breakfast to eat with her.

She left a message for Fang Yaqi saying that she was going out for a morning exercise.

Since they started training together a month ago, she has developed a habit of exercising in the morning, so the others didn't suspect anything.

"You're back a bit late today. We ate a long time ago, so I didn't save any for you." Fang Yaqi gestured to the breakfast she had saved for her.

It made her, who was secretly making money behind her teammates' backs, feel a little embarrassed.

As everyone ate, they chatted about today's competition schedule and discussed their next steps, and time passed slowly by.

Meanwhile, Qiu Xiangjing distributed the evolved spirit beasts to several spirit beast shops, deliberately choosing shops that were not far apart. However, no matter how meticulously he planned or how much effort he put in, he still couldn't escape the people who had followed him early in the morning.

Without Lin Manman and Qiu Xiangjing noticing, all the evolved spirit beasts they sold this time were bought by others...

(End of this chapter)