Heart of Wood Pet Beast Breeding Base, within the estate.
The door to the potion workshop was flung open.
Old Sha wore a ferocious expression as it stared at the smoke-filled workshop.
It had no idea what its young master had been doing inside.
But this process—like boiling a pot of literal filth—made Old Sha question for the first time whether Su An'yong's decision to leave the entire breeding base in his son's hands had truly been the right one.
This was the most agonizing and conflicted moment of its wolf life.
It feared that its young master might be harmed by the fumes.
If Su Ping fainted inside—or worse, got smoked to death—it would have no way to explain things to Su An'yong.
Yet once the workshop door was opened, the stench billowing out was no longer just nose-burning.
It stung the eyes too.
Wolf and hound-type Pet Beasts had extremely sharp senses of smell.
One could only imagine what it was like for Old Sha—a Commander-tier existence—to stand at the workshop door, forcing itself to endure that choking odor while watching Su Ping inside.
That took immense courage—and a bond forged through life and death.
Su Ping stood atop a platform, holding a half-meter-tall pestle.
Below him, the brewing furnace maintained a constant temperature of eighty degrees.
He was fully equipped—wearing a gas mask and oxygen tank—staring into the rolling smoke rising from the cauldron.
At this moment, Su Ping sincerely praised Blue Star's technology.
If this were ancient times—where potion brewing had to be done entirely by hand, without such equipment—then even with the perfected Heart of Wood formula, he doubted he could have produced much of it at all.
Technological advancement in the new era was truly wonderful.
Not only had it produced expensive mechanical-type Pet Beasts, it had also made life far more convenient for Beast Tamers and breeders.
All the resources and medicinal ingredients had already been added.
The Wolfsmoke Grass was fully thrown in as well.
Now, only the final step remained.
In the next instant, amid the dense smoke, Su Ping adjusted the furnace temperature.
The heat instantly surged to one hundred and twenty degrees.
The rapid stirring made Su Ping's arms ache.
Fortunately, after officially becoming a Beast Tamer, increases in rank also strengthened the Beast Tamer's physical body to some extent.
If this were before, he definitely would not have been able to endure such high-intensity work.
As the temperature spiked and the mixture was stirred rapidly, bubbles began to gurgle up from the dark green slurry below.
An even more indescribable stench surged upward.
The gas mask blocked the smell, and the smoke slowly began to thin. Through the mask, Su Ping carefully observed the potion at the bottom of the cauldron.
Finally—after his arms had nearly gone numb—the thick liquid fully formed.
Su Ping leapt down from the platform and moved to the outlet beneath the cauldron, pulling out a container he had prepared long ago.
At once, from the valve flowed a dark green liquid—thin, like a diluted loquat syrup.
Su Ping finally let out a breath of relief.
After shutting down the furnace and activating the self-filtering system, he carried the sealed potion out of the workshop.
Through the gas mask, he saw Old Sha's deeply aggrieved expression.
"Is it really that bad?" Su Ping asked, belatedly.
He removed the gas mask.
Then, instinctively, he sniffed.
In less than a tenth of a second, Su Ping slapped the oxygen mask back over his face.
Patting Old Sha, whose expression had grown even more resentful, he said,
"Old Sha, you've suffered. But it's fine—once you drink this tomorrow, you'll know how good it is!"
Looking at his young master's unwavering confidence, Old Sha glanced again at the small bottle of dark green "essence" Su Ping had boiled for hours—
Like boiling filth.
Old Sha's gaze grew complicated.
Never in its life had it imagined that the little master it had watched grow up would one day try to poison it.
Feed it shit!?
And do so right in front of its face!?
Old Sha swallowed hard. A crisp gurgle echoed from its massive body.
Then, before Su Ping could react, it bolted—vanishing into the forest of the base in a flash, so fast not even its shadow could be seen.
Su Ping scratched his head, glanced at the improved version of the Heart of Wood potion in his hand, and muttered,
"Is it really that exaggerated?"
He turned back and looked at the still reeking workshop, recalling the smell from earlier. He shuddered involuntarily.
Yikes… very refreshing, really wakes you up.
Although the stuff was indeed eye-watering, it still had to be consumed.
Just not now.
According to the potion formula, after brewing, it still needed to cool and solidify into a jelly-like state before it was considered complete.
After a full day of work, Su Ping was too tired to think much more. Once the Heart of Wood potion had cooled to near room temperature, he placed it into low-temperature cold storage and returned to his room.
Xiao Qing was still asleep in the Beast-Taming Space.
After becoming his contracted Pet Beast, Su Ping's own realm could feed back into it to a great extent, accelerating its growth.
Xiao Qing was currently in a rapid growth phase.
Turning on his phone, the first thing he saw was a notification from the class group chat.
As soon as he entered, a message popped up:
"Did you hear? The class monitor contracted a Crimson Fang Tiger with Commander-tier racial potential. Amazing! Looks like we'll be relying on the monitor in the future! @Zhou Shuchen"
Before a few seconds passed, another message appeared:
"Not bad, I guess. Just lucky. Director Zhang helped pull some strings. Two million down payment, sigh—gotta start paying off loans now. Still worth it though. It's only been half a month since contracting the Crimson Fang Tiger, and it's already grasped Flame Pounce. Its talent really isn't comparable to ordinary Pet Beasts."
The tone sounded self-deprecating, but between the lines, the pride was unmistakable.
It was none other than Zhou Shuchen—the class monitor—who had even changed his profile picture to a red tiger cub.
Clearly, even though the world had changed, class group chats were still the same.
Only the topic had shifted to contracted Pet Beasts.
That said, a Crimson Fang Tiger with Commander-tier racial potential was indeed impressive.
A two-million down payment wasn't too expensive.
However, Zhou Shuchen's family was quite ordinary. Even with Director Zhang's help, the loan amount must have been staggering.
That guy really did have some guts.
Come to think of it, Zhou Shuchen's talent was said to be the relatively rare Fire Affinity, which provided a combat boost to Fire-attribute Pet Beasts—perfect for becoming a battle-oriented Beast Tamer.
No wonder he and his family had probably scraped together everything they had to loan him that Crimson Fang Tiger as his first Pet Beast.
"Is Su Ping the only one left in the class who still hasn't contracted a Pet Beast?" someone suddenly asked.
"Su Young Master has high standards. Back then, Director Zhang kindly introduced him to a Scythe Giant Centipede with Commander-tier racial potential, and he rejected it outright."
Zhou Shuchen's Crimson Fang Tiger avatar lit up again.
Su Ping raised an eyebrow.
Back in school, this so-called outstanding class monitor had always been polite with him—not particularly close, but never openly hostile either.
After all, while Su Ping wasn't some second-generation Beast Tamer, his family was still relatively well-off.
Zhou Shuchen had always been the type who knew how to play nice.
Now that they had graduated, though—this sudden snide tone in the class chat—
So his true colors were finally showing?