Since the treatment could take over a month, Li Qian couldn't—and wouldn't—keep waiting at the hospital.
Besides, when he learned that the Sparrow-tailed Fish, despite its serious injuries, was no longer in mortal danger, the weight on his chest finally lifted.
After leaving the hospital, Li Qian hopped on his bike and headed back to the artificial waterfall to continue training Qizai and Ah Fu.
With his research nearing completion, he had to step up their Skill training.
Fortunately, Qizai was quite driven and ambitious. Not only did it train tirelessly on its own, but it also supervised Ah Fu, forcing it to train desperately as well.
Li Qian quite liked this kind of positive internal competition within the team. 'This excellent tradition must be maintained.'
The round trip to the hospital had taken up a lot of time. By the time he got back to the artificial waterfall, it was nearly eight in the evening.
Knowing that Qizai must also be worried about the Sparrow-tailed Fish, Li Qian gave it the good news the moment he arrived.
Qizai truly was a Pet Beast that could grind its way to learning the Climbing Waterfall Skill on its own; its intelligence was clearly a cut above Ah Fu's.
Understanding Li Qian's words and learning that the Sparrow-tailed Fish was receiving proper care, it stopped worrying and threw its whole heart back into training the Climbing Waterfall Skill.
Seeing the two fish training with their full attention, Li Qian didn't waste any time either. He resumed studying breeding knowledge while also pulling out his tablet to browse.
Just then, he noticed someone had started a thread on a Breeder forum discussing the evolution of the Koi Carp.
He knew that online forums were a mixed bag, filled with fakes passing for experts and very few genuinely skilled people, but on the off chance he'd find something useful, Li Qian started scrolling through it anyway.
The replies covered a whole range of opinions.
Some outright denied that a fixed evolutionary path existed between the Koi Carp and the Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragon, believing the evolutions seen so far were just isolated cases under extreme circumstances.
They even made some reasonable-sounding arguments.
Although Li Qian didn't agree with their views, he at least felt that these people had some level of expertise.
Other replies were just complete nonsense.
They thought that for a Koi Carp to evolve into a Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragon, it needed to consume Cyan Scale Grass.
They seemed to think that since the name "Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragon" contained the words "Cyan Scale," it must definitely require Cyan Scale Grass.
'What kind of logic is that?'
'Logic by name association?'
Li Qian couldn't help but want to laugh whenever he saw these kinds of replies.
'If raising Pet Beasts could be done through such wild guessing, what would be the point of Breeders!'
Ignoring these "genius replies," Li Qian continued to scroll down.
Reaching the end, he found there weren't many valuable responses. After a moment's thought, he started typing on his tablet and posted a reply of his own.
"The Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragon has Water and Wind attributes. In my personal opinion, the Koi Carp's evolution requires not only Dragon Element resources, but also Wind Element resources."
The moment his reply appeared, a number of comments popped up below it.
One of them was quite interesting.
"Why Dragon Element resources and Wind Element resources, and not a dual Dragon-Wind Element resource?"
'Why not a dual Dragon-Wind Element? Because I've already found the Blood Orchid Potion and Dragon Bone Powder.'
However, he had no intention of typing out an explanation.
He was just about to close the forum when a notification suddenly appeared in his forum's private messages—a friend request, which caught his attention.
After some thought, Li Qian sent his Sixun number.
The next moment, a friend request popped up in Sixun. The sender's name was "Tun Tun is not a Pig."
'That's a pretty interesting name.'
Tun Tun, a pig-like Pet Beast, was grouped with the Koi Carp, Fire Chicken, and Light Bulb Moth as one of the "Four Wastes" of the Pet Beast Realm.
'For this person's Sixun name to be "Tun Tun is not a Pig," they must have done some research on Tun Tun.'
Moreover, Li Qian also discovered that this "Tun Tun is not a Pig" was the original poster of the thread about Koi Carp evolution.
With a small laugh, figuring no one could scam him, Li Qian accepted the friend request.
After he accepted, Tun Tun is not a Pig immediately sent a message: "Hello, I saw your reply on the forum. I think your research on Koi Carp evolution is very insightful. I'd like to invite you to our Pet Beast research group."
'To see "very insightful" in my simple one-line reply... I have to admit, this Tun Tun is not a Pig has a good eye.'
Hearing about a Pet Beast research group piqued Li Qian's curiosity, so he casually asked, "What kind of Pet Beast research group?"
Tun Tun is not a Pig didn't answer his question directly, but instead pulled him into a group chat.
Group Name: Waste Pet Research Institute.
'The name is certainly... direct.'
After a moment's thought, Li Qian decided to change his group nickname as well: Koi Carp is not a Fish.
It made a nice parallel with "Tun Tun is not a Pig" and seemed to fit the group's style.
The moment after Li Qian changed his nickname, a message had already appeared in the chat.
Ha Lang is not a Dog: "Ooh, a newbie! Post a pic, post a pic!"
Li Qian silently clicked on Ha Lang is not a Dog's profile picture, then quickly typed two words: "I'm male."
Young Master Fox: "Male is fine too."
Little Butterfly: "Scram, all the men are mine. Little bro, how old are you? How tall? Got an eight-pack?"
Li Qian: "..."
'Did I join the wrong group?'
'Isn't this the Waste Pet Research Institute? Why does it feel like I've stumbled into a den of perverts?'
Tun Tun is not a Pig: "Everyone, be a little more reserved, a little more restrained. Don't scare off the new member."
"@Koi Carp is not a Fish, they're just joking around with you. It's their way of welcoming you."
Li Qian: "This welcoming ceremony is... really something, huh."
Old Yang from Next Door: "Welcome to the Waste Pet Research Institute. The main purpose of this group is to research the evolutionary methods of Pet Beasts, especially those that people have mistaken for Wasted Pets."
"I'm Old Yang. My main area of research is the Tumbling Crocodile."
'Finally, a normal person.'
'However, his research subject, the Tumbling Crocodile, seems to be a huge money pit too.'
'That thing isn't much better than the "Four Wastes."'
Its only evolution, the Wading Crocodile, only has the Potential of a Tier Eight Elite. Plus, the cost of evolution is very high. The price you'd pay to evolve one Wading Crocodile is enough to buy a Pet Beast with Low-Tier Commander Potential. The cost-effectiveness of its evolution is extremely low.
After some thought, Li Qian typed out a line.
"Hello everyone. My name is Koi Carp. I'm quite interested in Koi Carp. I look forward to getting to know you all."
A perfectly standard introduction.
Jumping Corpse Fairy: "Ah, the Koi Carp. That thing has caused a lot of people grief. It's said to have an evolution, the Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragon, but no one has figured out how to evolve it yet."
"Koi Carp, have you figured anything out?"
Li Qian thought for a moment, then replied, "I've made some progress, but I'm stuck on one problem."
Young Master Fox: "What problem?"
Li Qian didn't hide anything and directly stated his biggest dilemma. "After a period of research, I've roughly identified several key factors for the Koi Carp's evolution. I can confirm that it requires not only Dragon Element resources but also Wind Element resources. I've pretty much figured out the Dragon Element resources, but I have no leads on the Wind Element ones."
"On that problem, perhaps I can offer you some help." The moment Li Qian's words were sent, Tun Tun is not a Pig replied immediately.
Li Qian saw her reply. Although he didn't really think she could help him, he appreciated the sentiment. "Well, thank you then, Tun Tun."