Shuhua City.
Within the urban district stood an enormous pet-beast breeding base, covering a vast area.
Above the main gate, two large characters gleamed brilliantly:
Wolf Den!
Beside the plaque stood a massive Forest Wolf statue over five meters tall, radiating heroic vigor and imposing majesty.
Anyone passing by couldn't help but feel a twinge of envy.
This was the largest Forest Wolf breeding base in Shuhua City, and its owner was none other than an Intermediate Breeder—Sun Chaoju—disciple of Liu Fuhai, vice chairman of the Jianghai Province Breeders' Association.
An Intermediate Breeder.
That status alone was enough to command respect from anyone.
Within Jianghai Province, he was unquestionably a notable figure.
Yet at this very moment, the famous and highly regarded Breeder Sun had been eating poorly and sleeping badly for days.
The deadline for the bet he had made with Su Ping and Qin Xiaoxue was drawing closer and closer.
Although Sun Chaoju considered his mental fortitude quite good, remaining completely calm in the face of a wager of this magnitude was, realistically speaking, impossible.
During this period, he had never once stopped paying attention to the Wood Heart pet-beast breeding base.
After becoming an Intermediate Breeder and officially registering with the Breeders' Association, the steady stream of customers coming to him for breeding services was exactly what he had expected.
Some of them were even his own people.
That said, Sun Chaoju hadn't resorted to any underhanded tricks or dirty competition.
His teacher had already warned him once.
All he wanted was to see whether Su Ping's abilities and claimed probabilities were really as high as he said they were.
However, the results had completely exceeded his expectations.
That brat only accepted one client per week, which was one thing. Charging five million per job was still within a reasonable range.
But what Sun Chaoju had never anticipated was that over these days, there had only been two clients total—and both breeding attempts had succeeded!
This left Sun Chaoju feeling both delighted and unsettled.
Delighted, because if he could obtain such a breeding method, his Wolf Den would undoubtedly reach an even higher level.
Unsettled, because Su Ping's bizarre abilities and techniques made him wonder whether the kid really did have something special.
Could that bastard really pull it off?
Could he really raise Qin Xiaoxue's Forest Wolf, Mutou, and elevate its self-healing skill from Entry level to Proficient within just fifteen days?
Of course, this thought only flashed through his mind briefly before being discarded.
In truth, if it were any other skill that Qin Xiaoxue's pet was improving, Sun Chaoju might genuinely have felt uneasy.
After all, someone of Qin Xiaoxue's status would never choose a pet beast with poor innate quality.
Combined with her prior training, it was entirely possible that the skill was already on the verge of breaking through.
But what Mutou needed to train was self-healing.
First of all, Sun Chaoju had every reason to believe that even if Miss Qin's training was thorough and involved multiple real combat scenarios, self-healing training would inevitably be lacking.
After all, how many people were capable of injuring Miss Qin's pet beast in the first place?
With even a little thought, it was obvious how unrealistic that was.
That was precisely why—even after Mutou had reached Elite Tier, Stage Ten—its self-healing skill was still stuck at Entry level.
Secondly, and more importantly, as an Intermediate Breeder specializing in Forest Wolves, Sun Chaoju knew better than anyone which Forest Wolf skills were the hardest to raise.
Aside from postnatal-acquired skills, among a Forest Wolf's native skills, self-healing and sunlight absorption were the two most difficult to improve.
Sunlight absorption was easy to raise in the early stages, but reaching Proficient or Perfect levels was exceedingly rare.
In fact, it was often beyond what breeders could cultivate at all.
Self-healing was the same.
Among wood-derived attributes, the most formidable was naturally the life attribute.
As a relatively rare attribute, life-type abilities might not possess the overt destructive power of mental, spatial, or even time attributes, but they were unquestionably rare.
At its core, a Forest Wolf was a purely wood-attribute pet beast.
Yet self-healing was a racial skill derived from the life attribute.
That meant that compared to Vine Strangle or Accelerated Growth, cultivating self-healing fell squarely within the domain of the life attribute.
Under these conditions, claiming that Su Ping could take Qin Xiaoxue's Mutou from nothing and raise its self-healing skill to Proficient within fifteen days—
Sun Chaoju genuinely didn't believe it.
What a joke. Did they think skill-level cultivation was child's play?
Thus, as time passed and the days ticked by, the excitement and anticipation in Sun Chaoju's heart became increasingly difficult to suppress.
The closer the fifteen-day deadline drew, the greater the likelihood that he would win this bet.
Yet precisely because of that, he felt even more conflicted.
After all, when the bet had been made, his teacher had said that even if Sun Chaoju truly lost, he would still have to hand over his Accelerated Casting technique.
Frankly speaking, Sun Chaoju hadn't placed much importance on the incomplete evolution path of the Myriad Wood Wolf.
Only he knew how much of a trap that thing was.
Trying to fully develop that evolution path was like pouring resources into a bottomless pit.
Let alone Su Ping, an Intermediate Breeder—even someone like his teacher, a high-level breeder, would face immense difficulty succeeding.
But Accelerated Casting was different.
That was the very foundation upon which the Wolf Den breeding base survived.
It was a secret cultivation method that couldn't even be exchanged for within the Breeders' Association.
Even though Sun Chaoju believed that without his guidance, Su Ping would find it difficult to master it to the same degree—
What if…?
No.
There was no "what if."
At that thought, Sun Chaoju shuddered violently.
What am I thinking?
Why am I boosting someone else's morale while killing my own confidence?
With only a few days left in the fifteen-day period, all he had to do was endure these final agonizing days.
No matter what, he would secure the Wood Heart breeding method!
When that happened, the Wolf Den's fame and profits would soar to unimaginable heights.
Thinking of this, Sun Chaoju finally felt a little relief.
But at that very moment, his phone suddenly rang.
He glanced down, his eyebrows lifting.
Caller ID: Teacher Liu.
For some reason, receiving this call at this time caused a sudden surge of unease to rise in his heart.
He answered cautiously.
"Hello?"
Moments later, the renowned Breeder Sun—well known throughout the region—watched as the latest-model mechanical phone in his hand, worth tens of thousands, slipped from his fingers.
Clatter.
It shattered into pieces on the ground.
Three rounds didn't make it—kind of a pity. Still, I'll do my best to keep writing.
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews. comment
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read 60 chapter ahead on P@treon if you're interested: patreon.com/Nishaat