'Fine, Gu Yuexi! You've got some backbone! I'd like to see what kind of results you can get on the joint exam in two weeks with that mosquito of yours!' Chen Hao fumed, vowing to never again bother with this ungrateful woman.
And all of this was witnessed by Chu Sheng from inside his plastic box.
'Hey, buddy, that's not how you pick up girls!'
Chu Sheng couldn't help but laugh to himself. 'Flexing right off the bat and making all sorts of empty promises... his game is just too weak! My Empress has seen the world. She wouldn't even bat an eye at your pathetic little tricks!'
He was actually quite pleased with this outcome.
He wouldn't stand for someone harassing his long-term meal ticket.
And just like that, the day's classes ended in an eerie calm.
Gu Yuexi became a "celebrity" in Class 8—and indeed, in the entire Beast Taming Department.
The School Beauty who transferred from the Martial Arts Department, whose first Contracted Beast was a mosquito—the combination was such a bombshell that it would have been difficult *not* to become famous.
After school, Gu Yuexi didn't linger. She shouldered her backpack and left with hurried steps.
Chu Sheng thought she was heading home, but instead, he followed her through a series of twists and turns to a run-down residential complex that had clearly seen better days.
Here, paint was peeling from the apartment buildings, the hallways were plastered with flyers, and the air was thick with the smell of dampness mixed with cooking.
'Holy crap... Is the Empress really this down on her luck?'
Chu Sheng was a little dumbfounded.
He then remembered that Gu Yuexi had sold her house to buy that Spiritual Cyan Snake. Today was probably the deadline to move out.
'So, she's living in... a rental now?'
Sure enough, Gu Yuexi climbed to the fifth floor of one of the buildings and opened a flimsy-looking iron door.
As the door opened, an even thicker stench of mildew wafted out.
The room was tiny—you could see it all in one glance. It was maybe twenty square meters, furnished with nothing more than a bed, a table, and a wardrobe. It didn't even have a private bathroom.
Sigh...
Chu Sheng "heard" Gu Yuexi let out a soft sigh in her mind.
'Looks like life for this Reborn Empress is pretty damn rough.'
'But on second thought,' Chu Sheng mused, 'isn't this a good thing for me?'
'The worse the environment, the more insects, rats, and other pests there'll be. Doesn't that mean I'll have more potential "minions"?'
Gu Yuexi casually tossed her backpack onto the bed, then took out the plastic box containing Chu Sheng and set it on the table.
She stared at Chu Sheng in the box, a complicated look in her eyes.
"For the next two weeks, you're to stay in here. You are not to go anywhere," she warned him coldly through their Spiritual Link.
Chu Sheng: "..."
'Are you kidding me, lady? You're putting me in solitary confinement?'
'I'm an evolved mosquito! A Primary Mutant Blood Mosquito! I've gotten a whole size bigger; this box can barely contain me anymore!'
'Well... okay, that might be a slight exaggeration.'
'The main point is, I'm starving!!'
Highly displeased, Chu Sheng began to thrash about inside the box. He beat his wings in a BUZZING protest and repeatedly poked the inner wall of the plastic box with his toothpick-like proboscis.
TAP... TAP... TAP...
The sound wasn't loud, but it was rhythmic.
Gu Yuexi's brows furrowed slightly. Of course, she could feel Chu Sheng's displeasure.
She was annoyed, too.
A part of her desperately wanted to throw this mosquito—this symbol of her shame—as far away as possible.
But she couldn't.
The shared-life-and-death rule of the Blood Covenant meant she had to ensure the safety of this pathetically weak mosquito.
'In this crappy rental, who knew if there were rats or cockroaches? What if one of them ate it?'
'Keeping it in the box was the safest option!'
"Be quiet!" Gu Yuexi snapped, feeling vexed.
Chu Sheng paid her no mind and continued his TAP, TAP, TAPPING.
'You've got to be kidding. If you don't let me out, how am I supposed to drink blood? If I don't drink blood, how do I level up? And if I don't level up and someone just swats me dead one day, you'll die right along with me!'
'We're two grasshoppers on the same string now... no, wait. We're an Empress and a mosquito on the same string!'
"What is it you want?" Gu Yuexi demanded, the tapping giving her a headache.
Chu Sheng immediately stopped and clearly transmitted his intent.
"Hungry... drink blood..."
Although he couldn't hold a full conversation with Gu Yuexi, he was able to transmit simple concepts through the Blood Covenant.
Gu Yuexi: "..."
She froze.
'That's right, she'd completely forgotten—this mosquito needs to drink blood!'
'And what's more, she had to let it feed from her. Otherwise, if its Lifespan ran out, she would be done for, too.'
At this thought, Gu Yuexi's expression darkened even further.
She hesitated for a moment before finally, reluctantly, opening the lid of the plastic box.
"Just this once. As soon as you're done feeding, get right back..."
Before she could finish, a black shadow shot out of the box with a WHOOSH!
It was far faster than any ordinary mosquito!
The next second, she felt a sharp sting on the back of her hand.
She looked down to see Chu Sheng perched steadily on the back of her pale hand. His Level 2 proboscis, like a miniature drill, had pierced her skin effortlessly.
"You!" Gu Yuexi was both furious and astonished.
'This thing... How did its Speed increase so much?'
Ignoring her shock, Chu Sheng seized the opportunity to start his all-you-can-eat buffet.
'Amazing! This is incredible!'
[Qi Blood +0.21]
[Qi Blood +0.23]
[Ding! Host has absorbed 0.8 Qi Blood! Current Total Qi Blood: 1.9!]
[Ding! Blood digestion in progress. Estimated time: one hour. Reward: 0.4 Evolution Points! 5 hours of Lifespan!]
'0.8 in a single feeding!'
Completely satisfied, Chu Sheng felt his abdomen swell up again until it was taut and round, like a small red marble.
Only then did he unsteadily retract his proboscis, preparing to fly back into the box.
At that moment, however, Gu Yuexi snapped the lid of the box shut and fixed him with a scrutinizing gaze.
'Your proboscis... and your size...'
She had finally noticed that something was off.
'This mosquito... it seems like it's actually gotten much bigger! And its proboscis has gotten thicker and longer, too. The pain when it pierced my hand just now was several times more intense than before!'
'Could it be... that drinking my Qi Blood allows it to... evolve?'
A ridiculous, yet seemingly only, explanation surfaced in Gu Yuexi's mind.
Gu Yuexi stared intently at the mosquito on the table, its abdomen swollen and red, her mind racing.
As the former Beast Taming Empress, her knowledge of Demon Beasts far surpassed that of an ordinary person.
She knew perfectly well that for an ordinary insect, never mind evolving, even surviving a single season was a stroke of luck.
But this mosquito was clearly not normal.
In the span of a single day, its size, Speed, and strength had all undergone visible changes!
'What is going on here?'
'This mosquito... could it be an Alien Species?'