Heart of Woods Pet Beast Breeding Base, inside the manor.
The door to the Magic Potion Workshop swung open.
Old Sha's expression was fierce as he looked at the smoke-filled workshop.
Old Sha didn't know what his young master was up to.
But this process, as abhorrent as stewing shit, made Old Sha doubt for the first time whether it had been the right decision for Su Anyong to leave and entrust the family's Pet Beast Breeding Base to his young master.
Now was the most struggling and conflicted moment in his wolf life.
He feared that his young master would suffer from the fumes.
If he were to pass out or even be suffocated by the stench inside, Old Sha wouldn't be able to explain it to Su Anyong.
However, with the Magic Potion Workshop's door standing open, the overpowering stench was no longer just an assault on the nose. It also stung the eyes!
For canine-type Pet Beasts, their sense of smell is already the sharpest.
One can imagine, for Old Sha, a Commander Level being, standing in front of the door to the Magic Potion Workshop and enduring the pungent smell to check on Su Ping inside required an enormous amount of courage and deep loyalty.
Su Ping stood atop a footstand, holding a medicine pestle half a meter tall in his hand.
The cauldron below heated the entire interior to a constant high temperature of eighty degrees.
Fully equipped, he wore a gas mask and oxygen tank, peering into the billowing smoke of the medicine cauldron.
At this moment, Su Ping extolled Blue Star's technology.
If this were ancient times, the concoction of Magic Potions could only be done by oneself, and without this equipment, I would have reason to doubt that I could produce much of the perfect 'Heart of Woods' Magic Potion, even if I knew the formula.
The tremendous technological advancements of the new era are just wonderful.
It has not only yielded high-value mechanical-type Pet Beasts but also made life much easier for Beast Tamers and Breeders.
The various medicinal ingredients had already been thrown in.
The Wolf Tobacco had also been completely added.
Next came the final phase of the process.
The next moment, within the thick smoke, Su Ping twisted the temperature control of the cauldron, immediately raising the temperature to one hundred and twenty degrees.
The rapid stirring of the pestle made Su Ping's arms ache.
Fortunately, after officially becoming a Beast Tamer and advancing in rank, a Beast Tamer's physical body also receives a certain enhancement.
If it had been before, Su Ping definitely couldn't have sustained such high-intensity concoction.
With the sudden increase in temperature and rapid stirring, the previously pulp-like dark green slime below started to bubble. GURGLE. GURGLE.
An even more indescribable foul stench arose from it. The gas mask filtered out this smell, but the smoke had gradually dissipated. Through his gas mask, Su Ping observed the liquid at the bottom of the cauldron.
Finally, when Su Ping's arms had gone numb, the thick liquid fully formed. Su Ping then leaped down from the footstand and reached the outlet beneath the cauldron, taking out the Vessels he'd prepared beforehand.
Immediately, from the outlet valve, a dark green liquid resembling slightly diluted loquat syrup slowly flowed out.
Su Ping finally breathed a sigh of relief.
After closing the cauldron and activating the self-filtering function, Su Ping, holding the now sealed potion, stepped out of the workshop.
Through the gas mask, Su Ping saw Old Sha, who was wearing a look of silent complaint.
Is it really that exaggerated?
Su Ping belatedly took off his gas mask.
Then he instinctively sniffed. Within less than a tenth of a second, Su Ping quickly directed the nearby oxygen mask toward himself.
He rubbed the even more resentful Old Sha.
"Old Sha, I've wronged you, but don't worry. After eating this stuff tomorrow, you'll know the benefits!"
Looking at his young master's face, brimming with determination, Old Sha glanced again at the dark green 'essence' in the small bottle that Su Ping had painstakingly concocted over several hours.
His eyes were filled with complexity; he never imagined that one day, his young master, whom he had watched grow up, would attempt to poison him.
To feed him shit!?
And to do it right in front of him, no less.
Old Sha swallowed hard, and his massive wolf body emitted a crisp GULP.
Then, before Su Ping could react, Old Sha dashed off toward the forest of the base as if he were a puff of smoke, so fast that not even his shadow was visible.
Su Ping scratched his head and looked again at the modified 'Heart of Woods' Magic Potion in his hand.
Is it really that exaggerated?
A bit belatedly, he turned his head back to the still foul-smelling Magic Potion Workshop, and recalling the odor from earlier, he involuntarily shuddered.
Huh... Refreshing and mind-clearing!
Although this stuff is indeed a bit hard on the eyes, I still need to consume it.
But not now.
The Magic Potion formula required the concoction to cool and set into a gel after the final simmering to be considered fully complete.
After a busy day, Su Ping wasn't in the mood to ponder further. Once the bottle of Heart of Woods had returned to room temperature, he put it into a refrigeration box and then headed back to his own room.
Xiao Qing was still sleeping in the Beast Taming Space.
Since becoming his Contracted Beast, Su Ping's own Realm could greatly reflect on the Pet Beast itself, accelerating its growth.
And Xiao Qing was in a phase of rapid growth.
He opened his phone, and the first thing that appeared was a message alert from his class group.
Su Ping had just clicked in when a message appeared:
"Heard the class leader contracted a Crimson Fang Tiger with Racial Potential for Commander Level. Impressive! Looks like we'll be under the class leader's protection from now on! @Zhou Shuchen"
No sooner had this message been sent than a few seconds later, another message appeared:
"Not bad. I just got lucky. Director Zhang helped me find a connection, and the down payment was 2,000,000. Sigh, time to start paying off the loan. But it's worth it. The Crimson Fang Tiger has already mastered Flaming Pounce after just half a month since the contract—a talent that not any ordinary Pet Beast can match."
Despite a tone of self-deprecation, the underlying message was clearly one of pride.
It was none other than the class leader, Zhou Shuchen, who had even changed his profile picture to a crimson-hued young tiger.
Clearly, even though the world had changed, the same behavior endured within the class group.
Only now, the topic was about Contracted Beasts.
But frankly speaking, a Crimson Fang Tiger with Commander Level Racial Potential was indeed impressive.
A down payment of 2,000,000 wasn't expensive.
However, Zhou Shuchen's family was just an average household. Given the connection with Director Zhang, the figure for the loan was still unimaginably high.
This guy really had some guts.
Speaking of which, the class leader's talent was said to be the relatively rare 'Fire Element Affinity.' This talent was capable of providing a certain boost in combat power to fire Attribute Pet Beasts and was quite suitable for becoming a Combat Beast Tamer.
It's no wonder he and his family probably emptied their savings to secure him his first Contracted Beast, the Crimson Fang Tiger.
"In our class now, is Su Ping the only one left without a Contracted Beast?"
Someone suddenly asked.
"Su the Rich Kid has high standards. Previously, Director Zhang kindly recommended him a species with Commander Level Racial Potential, the Scythe Giant Centipede, yet he refused it."
Zhou Shuchen's Crimson Fang Tiger avatar flickered again.
Su Ping arched an eyebrow. During school, this 'fine' class leader had always been courteous with him—not overly friendly, but he had never offended him either.
After all, even though the Su family wasn't part of the so-called 'Beast Taming Elite,' they did have a minor heritage.
This class leader was the type who knew how to play his cards right.
Yet here he was, acting so passive-aggressively in the group chat after graduation. Was this his true nature revealing itself?