"Uh."
The girl fumbled around and finally managed to hold Little Fire Fox in her arms.
Du Yu simply kept his mouth shut.
Exhausting.
I always thought I'd be King Zhou in the future, but turns out Little Fire Fox is on another level—she's actually a female Sea King.
"Did you bully her?" the girl asked in a hushed voice. Normally, Demon Pet cubs are super attached to their owners, let alone after forming a contract.
And after the contract's signed, the Demon Pet can chill inside the owner's body and rest up.
But this Little Fire Fox keeps hanging around outside, refusing to go home. Makes sense—it probably means something's up with her owner.
"No, no, she's just super energetic and playful. Sorry for the trouble."
"Not trouble at all. You go get your luggage first," the girl said softly, her face full of fondness. She looked at the snuggly, clingy Little Fire Fox in her arms—obviously, she had zero resistance to beautiful, cute creatures.
When the five-person group picked up their luggage and headed back to campus, they automatically split into two groups.
"Glug glug..."
The whole way was silent. Du Yu, with his backpack on, pulled Li Mengnan's suitcase, listening to the wheels grind and turn on the yellow earth. He honestly felt kinda awkward.
"I'll introduce her to a new playmate," the girl suddenly announced. She opened her palm, and a deep red rose bloom floated up out of her hand.
Du Yu's eyes immediately lit up!
Wood and Fire dual-type Demon Pet, Rose Spirit?
Oh my god! This girl not only has her own Demon Soldier, even her Demon Pet isn't the school-issued one?
Skipping the Demon Soldier makes sense—school ones are all bottom-shelf stuff anyway.
But the Demon Spirit Academy's assigned Demon Pets were all top-notch, carefully selected, full of potential! This girl...
The deep red rosebud was about the size of a baseball, with a pair of big eyes whose color nearly matched the rose itself, making them hard to spot.
It had no stem, replaced instead by two little feet wrapped in petals.
Cute and gorgeous at the same time.
"Pop~" A faint smack came from the rose spirit's tiny mouth—pretty funny.
"Eee?" Little Fire Fox poked her head forward curiously, her little nose twitching, sniffing that faint, flowery scent.
"Hehe~" The girl giggled, stuffing the rose bloom into Little Fire Fox's arms.
Du Yu hesitated a second and then said, "Hey, I still don't know your name."
"Lin Shiyi."
"That's a beautiful name." Du Yu treated the moment as a masterclass—this, he decided, was the right way to use the word "beautiful."
Lin Shiyi had no idea about Du Yu's little game. At this moment, she was all about fun. She plopped the rose spirit on top of Little Fire Fox's head and admired the sight for quite a while before turning to look at Du Yu.
"Are you a local of Ancient Pine Tower?"
Du Yu: "Yup."
Lin Shiyi nodded thoughtfully. She figured this classmate probably hadn't paid much attention to the world of Demon Tamers before his awakening.
Ancient Pine Tower City—the Lin Family—a legit, renowned clan of Demon Tamers.
Maybe the surname Lin was common enough, but Lin + Rose Spirit? That combo made the girl's family background obvious.
Earlier, when Lin Shiyi got on the school bus, Teacher Gong Cheng had asked her several times to confirm her choice.
After all, at home she could get way better private instruction, so why come to this training camp?
Lin Shiyi fell silent, and Du Yu didn't try to force a conversation that would go nowhere.
As he passed a group of students, he waved at Li Mengnan, holding up her suitcase to show he'd brought it, before heading into the shabby dorm building.
The sight made Li Mengnan's anger skyrocket!
Just a few minutes, and Du Yu's already hanging out with some other pretty girl?
Even worse, her own "crackle-boom" was still clinging to that pretty girl's arms, with a rose on her head, no less?
"Unbelievable!" Li Mengnan gritted her teeth—in her mother's strict care, she'd never had any romantic experience. Now, for the first time ever, she felt the sting of betrayal!
And from a fox, of all things!
"Hey! What are you doing? Learned it yet?" Gong Cheng suddenly barked. Li Mengnan shrank back in fright and quickly tried to mobilize her Elemental Demon Breath.
But the wind, fire, and thunder elements in her body ran amok, out of control. No way could she focus them on her brow's forehead point—talk about frustrating.
Yesterday she'd even searched online for how to make a Demon Disciple Contract, failed at it, and thought the teacher would help once at school.
But now? Lucky her, she drew the meanest instructor!
The more Li Mengnan thought, the angrier she got. She gripped her Black Wind Sword tighter and suddenly felt a breeze catch at her feet—the Black Wind Sword even started to hum faintly...
...
While Li Mengnan was wallowing in her anger, Du Yu had already picked out a double dorm at the end of the west corridor.
He didn't bother cleaning the room—he still remembered Instructor Gong's orders. Cuddling Little Fire Fox, he dashed out of the shabby dorm building, heading straight for the northeast side of the field.
He'd thought he was moving really fast, but nope—he was the last one to arrive out of the five.
"Eee~" Little Fire Fox, just moments ago a bit sad about being apart, immediately perked up when she saw Sister Lin Shiyi again.
This time, though, Du Yu was way more careful—he kept a tight hold on Little Fire Fox and didn't let go.
Leave?
Hah! My beloved's not going anywhere!
Lin Shiyi smiled at Little Fire Fox, even gave her a playful wink.
"Mortal-level Demon Pets can study 1–2 Demon Skills." Suddenly, a deep bass voice sounded behind Du Yu, and a massive shadow enveloped him.
"Gulp." Du Yu's Adam's apple bobbed. He didn't dare move a muscle.
Gong Cheng stood behind Du Yu, his huge, burly frame leaving half his face visible.
He swept his gaze over the four students facing him: "The dining hall is on the dorm's east side. Your lunch is waiting, as well as special meals for your Demon Pets.
Once your Demon Pet learns a Demon Skill, you can go eat. Lin Shiyi."
The girl looked as sweet as can be. "Teacher."
Gong Cheng: "Has your Rose Spirit learned a Demon Skill?"
Lin Shiyi shook her head. "Not yet, it's just a newborn cub. I only formed a contract with it last night."
Gong Cheng nodded. "Alright, wait for me a second."
As he spoke, Gong Cheng pulled a stack of memo notes from his pocket, tore one off, reached his arm around Du Yu, and slapped it onto Du Yu's chest.
"Ugh." Du Yu gave a pained grimace. As Gong Cheng withdrew his hand, he quickly caught the note that slipped down from his chest.
The tiny note was packed with shrunk-down text, crammed full—perfect crib-sheet material for an exam.
Under the Fire-type Demon Pets section, Du Yu found info on Little Fire Fox.
"Little Fire Fox, Fire Demonic Beast.
Officially recommended Demon Skills to study:
1. Heroic Bronze·Spark Splash: Gather fire in the mouth and spit out a ball of flame toward the target area. The fireball explodes on contact, burning the enemy.
2. Heroic Bronze·Fire Cloud Tail: Gather flames in the huge tail, snap the tail to scatter layers of fire mist, hiding yourself while confusing and intimidating your enemy.
Demon Skill Levels: 1 Heroic Bronze, 2 Unyielding Silver, 3 Glory Gold, 4 Xuan Platinum, 5 Cold Jade, 6 Eternal Diamond, 7 Shimmering Starlight.
Note: Even the lowest Copper-level Demon Skills can theoretically be upgraded all the way to Starlight Level Demon Skills.
I hope all of you will train hard with your beloved pets, polish your Demon Skills, keep leveling up, and bravely climb to new heights!"
Du Yu read it over, then again. It was no different from what he'd seen on Wikipedia, just thrown in with some motivational speech.
He didn't pay much attention to the pep talk. The info online was super detailed, world records clear as day—the current highest level for Spark Splash is Cold Jade.
Countless Demon Pets have reached this, not even rare anymore.
No matter how hard the countless Fire-type Demon Pets try, none have gone further. So, odds are, Cold Jade is pretty much the ceiling for Demon Skill·Spark Splash.
Du Yu set the info sheet aside. Over there, Teacher Gong was already leaving with Lin Shiyi.
The rest of the students stared at each other.
Four people, three kinds of Demon Pets: besides Du Yu's Little Fire Fox, there were two Wolf Lake Dogs and one Little Earth Rhinoceros.
The little fox and the little puppies being palm-sized was already cute enough, but that dark brown baby rhino was tiny, too—totally dreamy.
But no matter how magical other Demon Pets look, nothing could shake the place that Wolf Lake Dogs have in the hearts of Great Xia People.
Two of the four have Wolf Lake Dogs—proof enough.
All the Great Xia security agencies use Wolf Lake Dogs. Common doesn't mean cheap, though—it's actually a sign of their power!
"Alright, let's get to cultivation—good luck, everyone." As class monitor, Du Yu gave out some casual encouragement, then walked off toward the distant archery targets.
Little Fire Fox was pretty funny about it—not a hint of reluctance showing.
Seriously, even though Lin Shiyi had left with Instructor Gong, there was still another girl in the remaining group.
But Little Fire Fox didn't think about setting up shop or claiming a new bed at all.
So... a face-value detector?
Du Yu reached the old practice targets, knelt down, and put Little Fire Fox on the yellow dirt. "You little heartbreaker, I've already picked a name for you."
"Eee?" Little Fire Fox tilted her head up, her eyes bright and lively as she affectionately nuzzled Du Yu's fingers.
When there were no pretty girls around, Little Fire Fox was so loyal and cute, sweet as sugar...
Du Yu squeezed her big fluffy tail and said, "From now on, your name is Xiaoyan."
"Eee~"
"Grow up big and strong! Xiaoyan, let's go check out more pretty girls together!"
"Eee!"
"Excellent! Now, use Spark Splash!"
Little Fire Fox blinked. She couldn't really understand Du Yu, but the contract gave her a vague feeling.
He wants me to use a Demon Skill?
Isn't that a bit much for a fox...
Little Fire Fox sat there for ages, but couldn't even manage a spark.
A few seconds later, she turned around, bit her own big tail, and did a spin right in front of Du Yu.
"Heehee~" echoed Little Fen Yang's laughter in Du Yu's mind.