Chapter 456: Is It Because of Love?

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Edited by Aelryinth

Counting the days, it had indeed been three months since the Fiery Scorpion advanced to gold-quality.

“Time, oh, time…” Zhang Che sighed for no reason, coming to a realization. It had only been half a year or so since he became a beastmaster. Not much time had passed; what was there to sigh about?

Although the Fiery Scorpion was completely useless to Zhang Che, it was a gift from Miss Tienan back in the day, after all, and it had helped him earn his first bucket of gold. This subdued beast was deeply sentimental to him.

Now, this originally one-star silver-quality beat card was about to break through to three-star dark gold-quality. Zhang Che wondered: if the Fiery Scorpion was at dark gold-quality to begin with, would his development have been even faster?

Random thoughts popped up in his mind, one after another, leaving him with no mood to read anymore.

In fact, Zhang Che had barely read any books since his arrival in this world, not even books like novels or whatnot that were meant to waste time.

It couldn’t be helped. As someone who had been baptized by the many mind-blowing webnovels, how could he possibly enjoy traditional novels anymore?

Zhang Che remembered in his previous life, he almost couldn’t stand reading traditional literature after he came into contact with web novels, except for some ancient poetry and literary classics.

Admittedly, the ancient Hua Xia culture was truly something worth being proud of. No matter how uncultured someone was, or how much they disliked reading, anyone could see the beauty in some universally appreciated poetry.

While waiting for the Fiery Scorpion to finish its advancement, Zhang Che was bored out of his mind. He turned to look at the elemental queen at the side, and he realized she had already tossed the book aside and closed her eyes to sleep.

It seemed like the elemental queen really had no love for books…

“Forget it. She likes watching television, so be it. It’s not really considered a bad habit anyway. It’s much better than smoking, drinking, or gambling.”

——

The time passed in boredom. Before he realized it, the Fiery Scorpion had completed its advancement.

Zhang Che immediately summoned it out from his spiritual sea. The newly-advanced dark gold-quality Fiery Scorpion was a size bigger than before, exceeding three meters in length with its tail, and standing close to a meter tall on all fours. The color of its carapace had turned bloody red, lustrous and shiny, looking like it was a sculpture crafted from the finest ruby.

“Tsk, tsk. The appearance is pretty cool! Too bad it’s limited by its potential and had grown to the height of its ability,” Zhang Che shook his head. The Fiery Scorpion’s attributes really didn’t interest him at all. After breaking through to dark gold quality, there wasn’t much change to its stats: its basic attributes only grew a little stronger, and it didn’t have a Halo, either. Indeed, its potential was a little too low…

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[Fiery Scorpion]

Level: Three Star (Level 30)

Quality: Dark Gold

Type: Original Combat Body

Characteristics: Poison Attribute Attacks, Outstanding Carapace Defense

Weakness: Fears Ice Elemental Attacks

Innate Attribute: Enhanced Fire Attribute Toxin, Able to Destroy Enemy’s Physical Body Faster

Skill: Penetrative Strike: Stinger’s Penetrative Ability is Doubled Upon Activation, Allowing It To Penetrate Its Enemies’ Tough Scales, Instantly Pouring Large Amounts of Fire-Attributed Toxin Into Their Body. Cooldown Time: 25 Minutes.

Potential: D Rank

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“Hmm? Master, you actually have such a weak subdued beast?”

Sensing the weak fire elemental fluctuations coming from the Fiery Scorpion, the elemental queen, who had originally fallen asleep, had sat up without Zhang Che realizing, and looked at the large Fiery Scorpion in the cave in confusion.

She was naturally able to tell with a glance that the fearsome-looking subdued beast was actually very weak. She only needed a casual wave of her hand to burn it to ash.

Thus, she had a question. Why would her master keep such a weak subdued beast at his side, and summon it out to have a look at it in the middle of the night?

The elemental queen was naturally very curious about this. As such, she asked Zhang Che directly.

The subdued beasts Zhang Che had displayed thus far were basically all powerful creatures. The combat-type subdued beasts and pets were at least at legend-quality. Even the relatively weaker frisky monkey had a unique skill of his own, with the ability to search for spiritual herbs in their surroundings. His role was even more important than ordinary epic-quality subdued beasts!

Could it be that this big scorpion had its own unique role as well? But the elemental queen didn’t feel that this thing had any use…

Zhang Che didn’t find it strange to see the elemental queen had woken up. After all, she was powerful, not to mention her being a fire specialist a few touches stronger than the Scarlet Flame Drake. Since the Fiery Scorpion was also a fire-attributed subdued beast, naturally she could sense it easily.

Of course, even if Zhang Che summoned any random subdued beast or pet the elemental queen had never seen before, she would be able to sense it immediately. Although she had learned to sleep, her alertness wasn’t any inferior to when she was awake.

At the elemental queen’s question, Zhang Che smiled faintly and said, “Where do I find so many powerful exotic beasts to hunt? Your master, I, is someone who can employ more than ten subdued beasts!”

The elemental queen still couldn’t understand the situation. She continued, “But isn’t this scorpion too weak? If I’m not wrong, the many exotic beasts Master hunted recently were all many times stronger than this scorpion. Why didn’t you swap them out?”

Putting legend-quality or whatnot aside, Zhang Che had obtained many mid-tier gold-quality beast cards. Even mid-tier dark gold-quality cards he had gotten numbered two digits. So, it didn’t make sense that he still kept a low-tier scorpion in his ranks, did it?

Hah, there must be a reason why!

Done thinking, the elemental queen’s gaze toward the Fiery Scorpion became much more excited. Before Zhang Che could reply to her, she continued, “Ha, I know! Is it because this subdued beast was once Master’s strongest beast and is thus unwilling to swap it out, keeping it until now?”

The elemental queen’s intelligence was truly not that different from humans. She actually got to the important point right away.

Zhang Che was slightly taken aback, then smiled and nodded, saying, “That is one of the reasons why. More importantly, this Fiery Scorpion was my first subdued beast, and was given to me by Huang Tielan.”

-So that’s why!- The elemental queen instantly understood a lot. She suddenly said, “Oh, oh, oh. I get it now. The reason why Master keeps this subdued beast around is because of love, huh?

Zhang Che nearly spat out a mouthful of blood at hearing that. -You inhuman woman. You’re talking to me about love?-

He cast a glance at the elemental queen, whose flames of gossip were now burning fiercely. He said helplessly, “Do you even know what love is?”

The elemental queen stuck out her chest and said proudly, “Of course I do! I didn’t watch all that television for nothing!”

Zhang Che was completely speechless. If he continued letting her indulge herself in television, heavens knew how many more things she’d learn in the future…