Beast Taming: Starting From Zero

Back in the room, Yabao was watching the Hanggang competition channel as usual, while Qiao Sang was following an online course on pet beast energy engravings.

At the same time, she was using a special engraving brush to draw patterns on Little Treasure's cheeks.

She wasn’t just passing time by learning a new skill during her vacation, she wanted to help Yabao improve his energy ball condensation.

After a period of training, she had begun to notice some issues when Yabao was practicing his Meteor Rain skill.

Meteor Rain was a high-level ability. Even though she had boosted Yabao’s points, his current energy wasn’t enough to support its release.

Despite the rapid progress with condensing energy balls, the internal structure of the balls wasn’t stable enough.

When they exploded in the air, it was more like a light drizzle than a proper Meteor Rain.

And not much of a drizzle at that.

There were three possible solutions.

Practicing Meteor Rain wasn’t urgent, so even if Yabao continued training for over a month until he evolved into Blaze Fang Dog, it would be fine.

But even after evolving, the energy might still be insufficient. According to the textbooks, mid-level pet beasts rarely mastered high-level skills.

The second option was using items.

She dismissed this quickly, it was simple: No money, at least for now.

The third option was engraving energy patterns.

This required technical skill, though some materials were expensive, they were still more affordable than high-tier items.

The simpler patterns required materials and mixing ratios that could easily be purchased online.

Given her current financial situation, Qiao Sang could manage.

The challenge lay in technique. The strokes had to be continuous, and every stroke had to be infused with equal amounts of mental power.

If the mental power was uneven, it could destabilize the energy structure and result in failure.

Using mental power in this context meant activating the Beast Codex within her brain.

Normally, when summoning a pet beast with the codex, she didn’t feel anything unusual.

However, continuously operating the codex to engrave patterns would definitely be taxing.

Qiao Sang had been learning how to engrave energy patterns for three days and hadn’t encountered any major struggles yet.

The primary function of the energy markings was to allow the pet beast to absorb external energy when releasing a skill, rather than solely relying on its internal reserves.

She had specifically bought a month-long online course on these engravings, and her test subject was Little Treasure.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to experiment directly on Yabao, but he hated water. Even getting him to take a bath was a struggle.

With Yabao’s dislike for water, experimenting with these engravings on him would take forever.

Little Treasure, on the other hand, had no such complaints. In fact, he had been very enthusiastic over the past three days, even actively bringing out the materials needed for the engravings.

“All done. Give it a try.” Qiao Sang said as she set down her brush.

"Xun~"

Little Treasure stretched out his tiny claws and gestured that there was no rush.

He picked up a small mirror that had been prepared in advance and held it up to his face, making various exaggerated and silly expressions.

Qiao Sang watched helplessly.

Anyone who saw this would think she was drawing a ghostly face, not an energy marking.

“Xun~”

Little Treasure put down the mirror and let out a happy sound, clearly satisfied with the work on his face.

A second later, a faint purple glow appeared around his body but quickly faded.

“Xun.”

Little Treasure spread his hands and shook his head, indicating that it didn’t work.

Another failure.

Although Qiao Sang was mentally prepared, she couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed.

Just as she was about to wash the markings off Little Treasure's face, there was a knock on the door.

"Xun~"

Little Treasure eagerly floated over to open it.

“Ah-Sang, why did you paint a ghost face on Treasure-Seeking Ghost?” Ye Ranran asked, momentarily taken aback upon seeing the patterns on Little Treasure.

"Xun~"

Hearing this, Little Treasure beamed, floating back to the table to pick up the mirror and admire his reflection again.

Qiao Sang: …!

This was an energy marking!

Qiao Sang opened her mouth, wanting to explain, but seeing Little Treasure proudly making funny faces, she felt like explaining would just be embarrassing…

“Is that the Ming frost coral powder?” Qiao Sang asked, eyeing the bowl in Ye Ranran's hand and changing the subject.

“Yes, I just mixed some up and brought you a bowl.” Ye Ranran said, stepping inside and placing the bowl on the table.

Qiao Sang picked it up and took a sip. It tasted slightly sweet.

“What’s the deal with Uncle? Why can’t he find two more people for the marathon relay?” Qiao Sang asked.

She had wanted to ask earlier but held back at the dinner table in front of her uncle, not wanting to embarrass him.

“Who says he can’t? Aren’t you and I people?” Ye Ranran teased.

Qiao Sang: …

“Just kidding. Uncle had originally found someone, but their prize preferences overlapped, and they also had conflicts with their pet beasts’ roles in the race.”

“This marathon relay is divided into land, sea, and air segments, with two pet beasts per section. Of Uncle’s friends, none had a flying-type beast, so your Treasure-Seeking Ghost can barely count for the air segment.” Ye Ranran explained.

So it wasn’t a matter of bad social skills or being ostracized…

“By the way, take some time over the next few days to train with Fire Fang Dog. The land section is the first part of the relay, and Fire Fang Dog is supposed to run the second leg. Uncle is mainly counting on his Roaring Swamp Crocodile to take first place in the individual category.”

“But the water section is the second leg. If you fall too far behind, Roaring Swamp Crocodile might feel the pressure. Lately, it’s been jumpy and its mental resilience seems a bit weak.” Ye Ranran added.

The pressure was now on Yabao.

Qiao Sang turned to look at the dog, engrossed in the competition channel, and figured it shouldn’t be a problem.

“Is Little Treasure the last leg?” Qiao Sang asked.

Ye Ranran nodded.

“Yes, but don’t worry. We’re not expecting to win the team event. Your Treasure-Seeking Ghost doesn’t even have to run if it doesn’t want to.”

Qiao Sang glanced at Little Treasure, who was still making funny faces in the mirror.

Well, as long as it doesn’t have to run, that’s a relief…

In the following days, Yabao’s schedule became even more packed.

He spent his mornings practicing skill releases, followed by half a bottle of F-level energy restoration potion to work on condensing energy balls.

In the afternoon, he repeated the morning's training.

After drinking the restoration potion, he no longer practiced energy ball condensation to the point of exhaustion, leaving time to run a few laps around Liugan Creek.

In the evening, after recovering with some Qiyuan milk, he would continue training in energy ball condensation.

It was more intense than when Qiao Sang had been studying to get into Shengshui High School.

With her pet beast working so hard, Qiao Sang couldn’t help but be influenced.

A vacation that was supposed to be relaxing turned into a study session, with her absorbing new knowledge and practicing energy markings on Little Treasure’s face.

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July 24th.

Clear skies.

The day of the Qitang Town marathon relay.

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