After finally getting a little closer to Water Luriana, Qiao Sang received the disheartening news that it was already advanced in age and had little time left.
Her emotions were incredibly complex at that moment.
No wonder Water Luriana acted so guarded and wary of humans, as if it had seen through people's true natures.
In its final year of life, it had been chased from the Ancient Guwu region all the way to Yuhua. Such a bleak end-of-life experience could easily lead to bitterness.
With this realization, Qiao Sang couldn’t help but squat down and gently pat Water Luriana’s head, saying sincerely, "You’ve had a hard life."
Water Luriana's first reaction was to turn its head away, but when it noticed the human's gaze, it paused.
"Lu lu…" Feeling the touch on its head, Water Luriana’s ears twitched involuntarily, letting out a reluctant call.
Just thinking about the upcoming daily grind, training like Flame Hound and Treasure-Seeking Ghost, felt exhausting.
But hadn’t training not even begun? And here was this human feeling sorry for it, even patting its head… This all felt strange…
“I’ll bring you along with me whenever I go out from now on.” Qiao Sang said as she looked at Water Luriana.
“Lu lu?” Water Luriana looked back, puzzled.
Though it was young, it knew that any uncontracted companion beasts found in human areas would be captured.
“Even if yesterday’s intruder might be dismissed, there are still many ways people could get in. If I leave you here alone, it wouldn’t be safe.” Qiao Sang replied, mistaking Water Luriana’s puzzled look as a question.
“Lu lu…”
Water Luriana nodded, thinking the human's reasoning made sense.
Seeing it agree, Qiao Sang patted its head with satisfaction and said, “When we go out, you can hide in my bag. Our school has a fountain, so once we’re there, you can stay by the water until I finish my training in the afternoon. Then, I’ll bring you home.”
“Lu lu.” Water Luriana nodded, finding this plan workable.
It felt that this human had thought things through; this way, outsiders would have a hard time spotting it.
Though their communication was somewhat muddled, in the end, Qiao Sang and Water Luriana managed to reach a consensus on daily outings.
---
Half an hour later.
“Yap…” “Lu lu…”
In the living room, Yabao and Water Luriana were locked in a stare-down.
Little Treasure sat nearby, sipping milk, looking between Yabao and Water Luriana.
Qiao Sang rubbed her temples in frustration.
She didn’t know if it was an innate dislike or just a clash between water and fire-type companion beasts, but the two seemed perpetually on the verge of a fight, even though they no longer clashed as aggressively as they did in the beginning.
“Yabao, come here. I need to talk to you.” Qiao Sang said.
“Yap.” Yabao instantly closed his bared teeth and obediently walked over.
Bringing Yabao into her room, Qiao Sang shut the door and said solemnly, “You need to treat Water Luriana a bit better from now on.”
“Yap?” Yabao frowned, confused. That creature had always sprayed him with water at night while he slept.
“I didn’t want to tell you this, but…” Qiao Sang sighed, her tone heavy.
“Water Luriana doesn’t have much time left.”
“Yap…” Yabao’s eyes widened in shock.
Qiao Sang continued, “Water Luriana’s species only lives for seven years, and it’s exactly seven this year.”
“Yap…” Yabao’s mood sank as he whimpered, feeling guilty. He had been bullying an elderly companion beast all this time…
“It’s alright.” Qiao Sang patted Yabao’s head to comfort it.
“Even though it’s old, it’s still going strong. If it hadn’t told us, we wouldn’t even know how old it was.”
“Yap…” Yabao felt deeply remorseful. Even though she said that, he felt terrible knowing that it had so little time left, and he had been picking on it for weeks.
Looking at Yabao seriously, Qiao Sang said, “Don’t worry. I’ll find a way to help Water Luriana evolve, so it’ll be okay.”
"Yap yap?" Yabao blinked its teary eyes at his beast trainer.
Really?
"Really." Qiao Sang nodded firmly.
Water Luriana evolving would indeed be difficult.
Liking another companion beast in its last days only to experience heartbreak was like an elderly person finally finding love in their twilight years, only to lose it, an unimaginable heartbreak.
But with her hidden talent, as long as she worked hard to awaken the third page of her Beast Training Codex, she wouldn't need Water Luriana to endure heartbreak to make it evolve.
Though developing her brain’s potential wasn’t something that could be achieved overnight, Qiao Sang still felt it was more reliable to focus on developing her mind quickly rather than letting Water Luriana experience heartbreak in its old age.
Outside the room.
Little Treasure peeked in, listening to his trainer’s conversation with Yabao.
Pulling his head back, he turned around and looked at Water Luriana with a complex expression.
If looks could speak, his gaze would say, I didn’t expect you to be an old-timer.
"Lu lu?"
Water Luriana looked back at Little Treasure in confusion, completely unaware that it was now seen as a pet nearing the end of its days.
When Yabao came out of the room, Water Luriana’s tail stiffened, and it instinctively gave Yabao a wary look.
But this time, instead of returning the look, Yabao hesitated, then forced a smile at Water Luriana.
Water Luriana: ???
---
At school, Qiao Sang brought Water Luriana to the fountain before heading to the training room.
During free training time, instead of scrolling on her phone like usual, she approached Zheng Baolong and asked, “Teacher, could you teach me the meditation technique now?”
Zheng Guoping was momentarily stunned. She hadn’t wanted to learn before, and now, with school about to start again, she suddenly wanted to learn meditation?
If it had been any other student, Zheng Guoping would probably have ignored the request.
Every teacher had their own subjects to teach. He taught competitive battling for the school team, not meditation.
But since it was Qiao Sang asking, he didn’t hesitate.
“Wait here a moment.”
He quickly left the training room.
Ten minutes later.
Zheng Guoping returned holding a book.
“Take this book, Meditation Techniques. Go through it first, it has annotations and illustrations. Ask me if anything’s unclear.”
“Alright.” Qiao Sang nodded as she took the book.
Beast trainers were all familiar with Meditation Techniques.
Even if Qiao Sang hadn’t read it before, she knew that in both high school and college, beast trainers generally followed the methods in this book to meditate.
There are countless ways to meditate, and numerous researchers have studied meditation in-depth, ultimately concluding that Meditation Techniques is the most suitable method for beast trainers' mental training.
Meditation, also known as mental exercise, has been studied using scientific technologies such as functional MRI and EEG, showing that regular meditation significantly enhances brain activity and promotes brain development.
Using scientific technology, such as functional MRI and EEG, research shows that regular meditation can significantly enhance brain activity, leading to the development of new brain regions.
However, meditation requires a certain aptitude. Many Beast Tamers, even after joining the field, struggle to enter a meditative state and can only rely on the brain's gradual, natural development.
Qiao Sang felt confident she could meditate without issue and immediately opened her book.
Time was of the essence, if she could master meditation early to enhance her brain's abilities, there was a higher chance that Water Luriana could evolve into Ice Qiya before reaching its life limit.
With this mission in mind, Qiao Sang earnestly read Meditation Techniques and, following the illustrations, sat cross-legged, relaxed her mind, took deep breaths, and cleared her thoughts completely...
"Look at you all. Here she is, already meditating before school even starts, and she's achieved a meditative state so quickly. And what about you guys? All you've done is let your beasts control energy output freely, lowering skill proficiency. It's been days, and there's been no progress whatsoever."
Zheng Guoping pointed at the cross-legged Qiao Sang, who had her eyes closed, and spoke in frustration to Wang Yao and the others.
"Hey, I managed to meditate on my first class." Wang Yao muttered.
Zheng Guoping shot her a sharp look, and Wang Yao immediately went silent.
"The National Campus Beast Mastery League is coming up soon. If you don't start putting in the effort now, how do you expect to get into a good college? Through regular exams?" Zheng Guoping scolded.
Unable to hold back, Wang Yao raised her hand and said, "I ranked sixth in the entire grade for the finals."
Zheng Guoping's eye twitched, and he raised his voice, "Was I talking to you? I meant those two!"
Shi Gaofeng: ...
At that moment, Xu Yajie suddenly asked, "Do you drool when you meditate?"
"Who drools while meditating?" Shi Gaofeng scoffed.
Xu Yajun paused for two seconds, then pointed at Qiao Sang.
"Her."
Wang Yao and Shi Gaofeng quickly turned their heads, noticing that Qiao Sang indeed had a bit of drool hanging from her mouth.
Unable to bear such a misunderstanding of this prodigy, Zheng Guoping frowned and clarified, "Some people do drool. When the body relaxes, and focus intensifies, saliva flows down from the palate continuously, it's a natural physiological response."
"Oh, I see…" Wang Yao and the others nodded in understanding.
"But do people sway during meditation?" Xu Yajie asked, noticing Qiao Sang's swaying upper body.
"No wonder your grades aren't great; you don't even know this."
Zheng Guoping replied dismissively, "Swaying is a natural reaction for some people during meditation. It varies based on individual physical conditions and vestibular balance sensitivity."
"As long as it doesn’t cause significant interference, don’t worry about it. With consistent meditation, these symptoms will gradually diminish or stabilize."
"I see..."
Wang Yao, Shi Gaofeng, and Xu Yajie nodded, feeling as though they had learned something valuable.
Half an hour later, Qiao Sang opened her eyes.
Damn it, I actually fell asleep…
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