Number one on the trending searches?
Qiao Sang was suddenly intrigued.
"Let me see," she said, turning up the volume on her phone and opening SuperBlog.
The top trending headline read
#The Strongest High School Student in History!#
The strongest? Surely not... Qiao Sang felt a bit embarrassed. She clicked on it to see
【Live from the National Campus Beast-Taming League! I'm willing to call her the strongest high school student in history!】
Below was a video showing the clip of her snapping her fingers while Ya Bao coordinated to unleash Meteor Rain.
Qiao Sang watched it several times.
Actually, it was filmed quite well. The uploader had added a high-energy BGM; from a third-person perspective, it really did feel incredibly cool.
The comments had already surpassed a thousand.
【Which region is this pet from? It looks way too cool!】
【I'm in love with this badass girl!】
【Holy crap, this is genuinely cool!】
【High school student? Bullshit! That pet's Meteor Rain is an Ultimate Move! You're telling me she's just a high school student?!】
【If you can't see, just donate your eyes. Didn't you see the caption saying this is the National Campus Beast-Taming League?】
【This is already the strongest? Don't they understand the principle of elemental counters? This is a Fire-type pet, right? Go look up Song Xinyue from Jichang Province in the Lianbo Region; her pet is a natural counter to Fire-types.】
【I did some digging: Qiao Sang, 15 years old, a freshman at Shengshui High School in Zhehai Province, Yuhua Region. Her Beast-Taming Codex has been developed to three pages. She currently has one High-grade pet and two Mid-grade pets. People from the Yuhua Region should know—she's the tamer of the Flame-Listening Hound mentioned a while back. The High-grade pet you see in the video is the evolved form of her Flame-Listening Hound.】
【Damn, so badass!】
【Heavens! Isn't that Qiao Sang?! I went to the same school as her in middle school. She was practically a legend at our school; she was basically ranked last for three years, but then she put in some effort in the final few days of ninth grade and ended up getting into the best high school in our city.】
【15 years old? High school student? She's only a freshman?!】
【Ahhh! I know her! The endangered pet of our Guwu Region, Articuno, was contracted by her!】
【Insane. Even novels wouldn't dare write this.】
【15 years old? You've gotta be kidding! When I was 15, I was still thinking about how to get my Little迦Hound to agree to train...】
Just as Qiao Sang was reading with great interest, Xu Yixuan's voice rang out from the speaker
"Interview time: how does it feel to be number one on the trending searches?"
Qiao Sang smiled and said, "Feels pretty good."
"If this were yesterday, I wouldn't have been able to imagine everything that happened today." Xu Yixuan laughed wildly. "You actually one-shotted Ding Yanjing. You didn't even see the look on his face at the time..."
"I saw it," Qiao Sang interrupted.
Xu Yixuan: "..."
After a few words of small talk, the call ended.
Then, the phone rang again. A glance showed it was Fang Sisi.
Qiao Sang answered.
As soon as the call connected, Fang Sisi shouted excitedly
"Qiao Sang! You're number one on the trending searches! Holy crap! So cool! How did you think of such a showy move as snapping your fingers? Also, when did your Flame-Listening Hound evolve? And, and, what is the evolved form called?"
Qiao Sang paused for a moment and only answered the last two questions
"It evolved the week before last. It's called the Blazing Star Hound."
"That name sounds so good!" Fang Sisi said. "Oh right! I've decided to let my Cotton-Joint Bug evolve into a Ba-Fire Butterfly. I know that even if it becomes a Ba-Fire Butterfly, it won't be a match for your Blazing Star Hound, but I'll work hard to make it evolve again! When the time comes for you to find a partner for Blazing Star Hound, for the sake of us being desk-mates for years, I hope you'll prioritize my Cotton-Joint Bug!"
"..."
...
"Qiao Sang, look at the top trending search! That person looks just like you!"
"Uh, that is me..."
"..."
"Hello? Are you still there?"
...
"Qiao Sang, that 'strongest high school student' on the trending searches right now..."
"That's me."
"Holy crap! For real?!"
Within a few short minutes, Qiao Sang received several calls.
As soon as one ended, another came.
Qiao Sang was getting a bit annoyed and prepared to turn off her phone. Just then, it rang again.
Seeing the contact name, Qiao Sang hesitated for a moment before answering
"Hello, Sister Song."
"I saw the trending searches," Song Yuan asked, her voice trembling. "Your Flame-Listening Hound evolved?"
Qiao Sang gave an "mm-hmm." "It evolved a while ago. I've been preparing for the competition lately, so I didn't have time to mention it."
Song Yuan hurriedly said, "It's fine, it's fine. The competition is more important."
After saying this, Song Yuan took a deep breath, suppressing her wild joy, and continued, "Let me know when you're finished with the competition. Let's grab a meal; I have something to tell you."
A beast-tamer who reached such strength at 15 was already famous, even without considering the future.
Although people might forget this trending topic after a while, it was foreseeable that Qiao Sang would definitely not be limited to just Zhehai Province.
Meeting a genius like this was her opportunity.
The current contract's allure was too low. No matter what method she used, she had to bind herself firmly to Qiao Sang before the girl had fully grown!
...
Too many calls... Qiao Sang turned off her phone, took the elevator, and pressed the fifth floor.
Rila Hotel.
Fifth floor.
Spike Dragon and Scale-Control Sucker were engaged in a free battle.
Li Zonglin sat on the sofa in the lounge area, took a sip of his drink, and comforted
"Brother Ding, don't be too sad. I've analyzed it seriously; that Qiao Sang is just a freak. With a move like that Meteor Rain, no one could have handled it."
Ding Yanjing stared out the floor-to-ceiling window in silence.
"But seriously, is she really a freshman? She has no family backing and didn't inherit pets from elders. How can a person be this freakish?" Li Zonglin continued talking to himself.
Wang Rui shot a glance toward Ding Yanjing: "Shut up."
Li Zonglin understood instantly and quickly changed the subject: "By the way, Brother Ding, are you still going to watch Fu Xiaodan's match tomorrow?"
"No," Ding Yanjing said flatly.
"You lost the match, and now you're giving up on love too?" Li Zonglin teased.
Ding Yanjing said, "I plan to apply to Senno Beast University. It'll be a long-distance relationship anyway; we're bound to break up sooner or later."
Senno Beast University was in the country of Ziva. That place was unstable, with secret realm rifts appearing from time to time, which meant Senno students basically had to earn credits by helping control wild beasts.
The most famous part of the school was its Battle Department. Every month, they would self-fund invitations for students from top battle departments around the world to come and battle their own students to exchange experience.
In terms of gaining practical combat experience alone, this school was quite renowned among top institutions.
Wang Rui was stunned: "Are you serious?"
Ding Yanjing glanced at him: "What do you think?"
Li Zonglin, who had been chatting non-stop, suddenly fell silent. He could tell that Ding Yanjing had been severely shaken by today's match...
Wang Rui tried to persuade him: "Is there a need to go that far?"
Ding Yanjing looked calm and said
"After today, I'm afraid I won't have another chance to battle Qiao Sang. But I'm not reconciled, and nor is Gutaoka. Qiao Sang will definitely go to a top university in the future. If she enters Senno Beast University, I might have another chance to battle her."
As soon as these words were spoken, the atmosphere became silent.
Just then, a crisp voice rang out from the side
"No need for all that trouble. I work part-time as a sparring partner at the Hongying Beast Battle Club. If you want to battle me, just go there. Since we've fought once, if you give my name, I'll give you a 0.1% discount."
Ding Yanjing and the other two stiffly turned their heads simultaneously. The center of their conversation was standing right there.
"!!!"
...
"Holy crap! Why is she here?" Li Zonglin looked at Qiao Sang, who had walked nearby and begun forming hand seals, and said in shock.
"You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask!" Wang Rui frowned. "I remember Shengshui High School was supposed to be staying at the Shengcheng Hotel."
"Are you guys stupid?" Once it was confirmed that he could actually pay to battle Qiao Sang, Ding Yanjing returned to his usual self
"Look at those three pets of hers; her family definitely isn't lacking money. For such an important competition, of course she'd want to stay somewhere more comfortable."
*Only lacking money for a year...* Qiao Sang automatically blocked out the surrounding noise. She looked at the environment of the fifth-floor training ground and said to Ya Bao
"This place isn't suitable for practicing Hellfire. How about this, you practice meditation first."
"Ya!"
Ya Bao nodded, closed its eyes, and a faint blue light immediately emerged from its body.
Qiao Sang scanned the surroundings again.
Although the place was large enough and the training equipment was sufficient, and the floor was paved with special stone that was hard to damage, it was still not suitable for practicing skills with powerful destructive force.
It seemed she had to be careful when buying a house; she couldn't just buy one with a large indoor training ground; it had to have an outdoor area that could withstand destruction.
"Little Treasure, you practice Spatial Shift." As Qiao Sang spoke, she took out the blindfold she had specifically bought yesterday and put it on Little Treasure.
After being teleported into the middle of a main road yesterday, she had thought about it carefully. If she continued training Little Treasure like that, she feared there was a certain probability she would die young and leave this world.
Therefore, until she could ensure Little Treasure could perform precise coordinate positioning, it had to practice on its own.
Training with eyes covered was a trick she came up with.
Once the eyes were covered and visual influence was gone, the sensitivity of other senses would increase.
The map presented in the mind via spiritual power would be more precise and detailed.
Additionally, without vision, one would be more cautious psychologically, and thus wouldn't dare randomly shift to a distant place when performing Spatial Shift.
Even if a mistake occurred, with the bidirectional positioning necklace on, it should be able to be found quickly.
"Xun~"
After the blindfold was put on, Little Treasure extended a short claw and curiously touched the blindfold.
"Feel it with your spiritual power," Qiao Sang guided.
"Xun~"
Little Treasure lowered its claw and activated its spiritual power.
Instantly, the surrounding terrain map appeared in its mind like a 3D holographic image.
At that moment, Little Treasure heard its tamer's voice
"Once you've positioned carefully, use Spatial Shift."
"Xun..."
Now that it couldn't see, what if it shifted too far... Little Treasure began positioning with extreme caution.
One second later, Little Treasure vanished from its spot.
"Xun~"
Little Treasure took off the blindfold, wanting to see where it had shifted to.
As soon as it took it off, it saw its tamer's face.
"Xun?!"
Little Treasure looked shocked.
It failed?!
"No," Qiao Sang's mouth twitched. "You successfully shifted to the left... uh, by about ten centimeters."
"Xun..."
Little Treasure patted its chest with its paw and breathed a sigh of relief.
It had scared itself half to death, thinking the move hadn't triggered...
*I knew it would become cautious after covering its eyes, but I didn't know it would be THIS cautious...* Qiao Sang complained internally, then said softly, "Just keep practicing like this for now."
"Xun~"
Little Treasure obediently put the blindfold back on.
After arranging Little Treasure, Qiao Sang looked at Lu Bao, who was quietly staring at her. Suddenly remembering its evolution condition, she hesitated and asked
"Do you want to watch a comedy?"
Lu Bao: "???"
...
Over the next few days, the competition proceeded in an orderly fashion.
Everyone prayed that they wouldn't be matched against Qiao Sang.
Having witnessed the strength of the Blazing Star Hound, everyone knew that as long as their name was paired with Qiao Sang's, it meant they could pack their things and go home.
On the sixth day of the elimination rounds, only nine contestants remained.
Due to the odd number, one person had to be chosen to receive a bye for this round.
In such cases, the person receiving the bye was chosen based on a combination of performance in the qualifiers, group stages, and elimination rounds, as well as the attributes of the contestant's pets and the contestant's own skill level.
After much discussion and decision-making, Qiao Sang was named on the spot as the recipient of the bye for this round.
To this, not a single person raised an objection.
...
Kainan Beast Battle Arena.
Contestant Area.
The vast area now only seated nine people.
Qiao Sang sat in the first row, with Ya Bao beside her, excitedly watching the match on the field.
"Who do you think will win?" Xu Yixuan leaned in and asked.
Qiao Sang didn't answer directly, but instead asked Ya Bao, "Who do you think will win?"
"Ya..."
Ya Bao looked at the two pets battling on the field with a serious, thinking expression.
Then, it pointed with absolute certainty at the Poison-Tail Moth in mid-air.
Seeing this, Qiao Sang said to Xu Yixuan, "In this match, Wang Rui's Scale-Control Sucker will win."
Ya Bao: "???"
Xu Yixuan: "???"
*Wait, if you're going to answer, why ask the Blazing Star Hound first? And if you asked, why specifically give it a different answer...* Xu Yixuan was left speechless by Qiao Sang's operation. Just as she was about to ask...
The Scale-Control Sucker on the field, enduring the poisoned state, used an Illusion Beam to defeat the Poison-Tail Moth.
"Tweet!"
The whistle blew, and the referee announced, "Litan Beast High School, Wang Rui wins!"
Ya Bao: "!!!"
Xu Yixuan: "!!!"
*Ya Bao's 'poisonous milk' is as powerful as ever...* Qiao Sang mused internally.
The battles proceeded quickly, and all eight people finished their matches in one morning.
Although it was already known who had advanced, the formalities still had to be followed.
A man with a Flying Squirrel on his shoulder walked to the center of the field, holding the printed list of qualifiers, and announced loudly
"The contestants advancing to the next round are: Wang Rui from Litan Beast High School, Li Zonglin from Litan Beast High School, Xu Yixuan from Shengshui High School, Huang Kaijun from Lianyu Beast Affiliated High School, and Qiao Sang from Shengshui High School."
"Congratulations to you all."