117: College Cup warm-up

The mentor's efficiency was extremely high; the day after Chen Xing sent the request to transfer the money to the designated account, he received the steaks as scheduled.

A tall black container was steadily unloaded downstairs, neatly holding four enormous boxes, each measuring an astonishing 2 * 1 * 1 meters.

With Four Phases' help, Chen Xing carried these heavy boxes one by one into the living room.

Opening the boxes, a cold white mist accompanied by the fresh scent of meat wafted out.

At the bottom of the box lay a whole, massive steak.

It was the upper section of the longissimus dorsi muscle from the sixth to twelfth ribs of a cow, commonly known as ribeye steak.

Each steak had blood-streaked ribs, appearing exceptionally fresh.

And a single steak like this cost as much as 800,000.

Chen Xing inwardly lamented the exorbitant price.

However, in terms of overall price, it was still much cheaper than buying from the monster meat market.

Chen Xing guessed that the price the mentor mentioned was likely the selling price in the foreign region.

Transporting such a large steak domestically would incur significant customs duties, so the domestic selling price would probably be much higher than 800,000.

The extra money in here must have been paid by my mentor.

Chen Xing sighed softly, realizing he was accumulating more and more favors from his mentor.

His home kitchen couldn't cook such large ingredients, so he had to take them outside.

He went to the market to buy all the necessary auxiliary ingredients, returned home to process them one by one, and made fragrant spices.

Next, he took out the butter he had made earlier from the refrigerator.

Once prepared, he set off again to the market to buy seasonings and shelves.

With everything ready, Chen Xing greeted his family and left with the ingredients and tools.

He rented a car through a car-hailing app to transport the items to the suburbs, loaded everything, and then took the car to an open area in the suburbs.

The driver didn't ask much; after all, in this era, people's hobbies were diverse and strange, and he had long grown accustomed to it.

He simply drove Chen Xing to his destination as requested.

And left his contact number, so Chen Xing could reach him if he needed to return.

After confirming that the surroundings were safe, Chen Xing summoned the Glutton.

As soon as this behemoth appeared, the surrounding air seemed to solidify; the chirping insects in the grass and the chattering birds in the nearby forest all became "mute."

The Glutton, like a bully, circled the area twice, ensuring there was no threat before lying down beside Chen Xing.

"Perfectly positioned," Chen Xing praised.

He placed the ingredients and boxes on the Glutton's back. "Let's go, let's move a bit further in."

This area was too close to the road, and barbecuing here might attract onlookers.

So, it was best to go a bit deeper.

After walking for a while, Chen Xing chose a suitable spot.

Behind him was a vast, dark mountain, and not far ahead was the brightly lit city.

Chen Xing simply cleared the nearby area, then gathered branches and dry leaves, set up the stand, and placed the steak on it.

"Master Four, light the fire," Chen Xing called out to Four Phases, who was standing guard on a nearby branch.

Four Phases spread its wings, glided down beside Chen Xing, and extended a ball of black flame from its palm to ignite the dry branches.

"Fire-type is still so useful; no need to bring a lighter," Chen Xing mused.

Hearing Chen Xing's praise, Four Phases proudly raised its neck.

"Awoo!"

The Glutton also hurried to bark beside him.

"Ah, yes, yes, the Glutton is also very powerful; it helped me move things!" Chen Xing praised and encouraged the Glutton.

The Glutton smugly glanced at Four Phases, its tail wagging slightly, clearly in a good mood.

Four Phases ignored the childish Glutton and flew directly to a nearby tree to stand guard.

Chen Xing looked at Four Phases and the Glutton beside him, filled with emotion.

One is water-type, and the other has fire-type, so there's no need to worry about water and fire sources even in the wilderness.

Moreover, one can fly, and the other can swim. If they were to go wilderness survival again, they would only need to find a qualified medical Beastmaster, and then it would truly be perfect.

The flames sizzled as they roasted the steak, and the seasonings were evenly spread over its surface.

Gradually, the steak emitted a peculiar aroma.

When Chen Xing squeezed on his homemade butter, the aroma reached its peak.

A stray dog in the distance was drawn by the scent.

But upon seeing the Glutton lying on the open ground in front, it immediately tucked its tail and ran away without looking back.

It just wanted to scavenge for food, not to be scavenged for food.

"It's ready, come and try it."

The Glutton impatiently took a bite of the steak.

Its enormous mouth swallowed the entire steak.

"Hmm?"

Chen Xing noticed the stone tablet in front of him automatically fly out.

Two new lines of data appeared in the Glutton's panel.

[Current Length] 29.4 meters

[Maximum Length] 34 meters (34 / 340)

The meter number after "Maximum Length" below blurred for a moment, changing from 34 to 40.

It seems one steak can increase the maximum body size by 6 meters.

What increased was the upper limit, not directly inflating the Beast Taming's body size to the target value; it still needed to eat nutritious food to grow quickly.

Chen Xing quickly calculated that he would need about 51 steaks to increase the length limit to 10 times its original size; since he just ate one, he still needed fifty.

Fifty steaks, at a price of 800,000 per steak, would be forty million.

It doesn't seem that expensive...

Thinking this, Chen Xing quickly shook his head. He was truly dazzled by what he had recently encountered; since when was forty million a small sum?

He was truly getting ahead of himself; not long ago, his family was still burdened by a medical bill of one hundred million, like a towering mountain.

Chen Xing opened another box, took out the steak, and seasoned and grilled it again.

Four Phases also felt a bit greedy after smelling the aroma.

Chen Xing said, "Let it eat first. I'll make some for you when I have money later, but don't worry, you'll have plenty later."

Four Phases nodded understandingly.

After cooking and eating, Chen Xing also distributed the Intermediate Carnivorous Pet Food he had brought to them.

But Chen Xing noticed that the Glutton's appetite seemed to have increased; after eating its usual yesterday's portion, it was still very hungry.

It wanted to eat Four Phases' food.

Four Phases vigilantly clutched its food and flew away. It had long noticed this glutton walking around with ill intentions. Humph!

It really was eyeing its food!

"I'll give you an extra meal when we get back," Chen Xing told the Glutton to come back.

After eating, Chen Xing tidied up the ground to prevent embers from reigniting, and he also had the Glutton release a Great Whirlpool to summon a lot of water to thoroughly soak the ashes on the ground.

Then he called the driver to come back.

Returning home that night, Chen Xing took food from the refrigerator, then went to a secluded corner of the park, released the Glutton, and let it eat its fill.

The next day, the Glutton's energy level continued to increase, but its length directly surged by half a meter, already approaching thirty meters.

This was just the beginning; Chen Xing was already looking forward to the High School Cup twenty days later.

When its body size limit increased, the Glutton's appetite not only grew, but its growth rate also increased.

However, this was accompanied by a rapid increase in spending.

The Glutton now ate Intermediate Carnivorous Pet Food made from high-level monster meat.

If he used low-level monster meat, Chen Xing wouldn't have to do anything else all day; all his time would be spent cooking.

Now Chen Xing already felt that time was becoming insufficient; he was constantly making various nutritious foods and training his Beast Taming, with all his time devoted to this.

Even the time spent with his family became less.

Liu Yuzhen and the others saw Chen Xing's daily busyness, felt heartache, but were powerless, only trying their best not to disturb him.

Not only Chen Xing, but Chen Lingya also became increasingly busy every day.

Chen Xing was preparing for the High School Cup, and she also had to prepare for the High School Cup.

Especially as last year's Shuzhou Cup champions, not only the school but also the district and city education department leaders attached great importance to them.

If Jin City could produce a team that performed brilliantly in the High School Cup, it would be an excellent political achievement.

During these twenty days, both of Chen Xing's Beast Tamings made steady progress; it had been a month and a half since they returned from Cangwu.

Both Beast Tamings had made significant progress.

The TV was broadcasting a pre-show for the High School Cup, with several hosts chatting and laughing about this year's High School Cup and the strong teams from previous years.

Chen Xing and his teammates gathered in Qinglong No. 8 Middle School's School Team classroom.

The High School Cup was a nationally televised event, attracting hundreds of millions of viewers each year.

Although most viewers focused on the university group's matches,

the high school group's matches were equally exciting,

with tens of millions of viewers watching the high school group each year, which was still a very large audience.

Especially the high school group's semifinals and the final match, the number of viewers would skyrocket during these crucial games.

Because the high school group and university group's final match times were not consistent, the audience's time would not conflict.

On TV, besides two professional hosts responsible for setting the mood, the remaining three were highly popular Super-Order Beastmasters invited.

The atmosphere in the classroom was a bit tense, with occasional phone text message sounds.

Not only on TV, but on major news platforms and social media, the High School Cup's popularity had dominated for the past few days.

Chen Xing, sitting in the back row, leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head, seemingly casually watching the program, but his attention was actually on his stone tablet.

Watching the various stats and abilities of his two Beast Tamings continuously improve, a strong sense of accomplishment welled up in Chen Xing's heart.

[Species] Shui Di Tan Jun Crocodile

[Status] Healthy (slightly hungry)

[Energy Level] 49.2

[Energy Level Limit] 100

[Attribute] Water

[Current Length] 40 meters

[Maximum Length] 88 meters (88 / 340)

[Weight] 445 tons

[Skills]

Beginner Skills: Devour Water (Transcendent), Giant Tail Sweep (Mastered)

Intermediate Skills: Great Whirlpool (Transcendent), Water Curtain Light Armor (Perfect), Heavy Armor Trample (Mastered)

Advanced Skills: Great Flood (Mastered), Deep Sea Onslaught (Perfect)

Passive Skill: Water Mimicry · Stillness

Innate Skill: Vortex of Annihilation (Perfect)

The Glutton's energy level still hadn't broken through fifty before the competition, but it wasn't a big problem; the competition wouldn't end in one day.

By the time of the finals, the Glutton's energy level would definitely have broken through fifty.

But more importantly was the Glutton's current size.

It was completely a hundred-ton monster.

Its massive size might disperse its power, making it harder to hit "ants."

But skills wouldn't.

Especially common skills, they could perfectly inherit the caster's strength, concentrating all power onto a single point to accurately strike the opponent.

Compared to when it first evolved, the Glutton now had two more common skills.

One was Giant Tail Sweep, and the other was Heavy Armor Trample.

For large-bodied and strength-type Beast Tamings, these two skills greatly benefited from the caster's physical strength bonus.

[Species] Four Aspects Divine Eagle

[Status] Healthy (bored)

[Attributes] Thunder, Fire, Darkness, Soul

[Energy Level] 44.6

[Energy Level Limit] 87

[Divinity] 0.1

[Wingspan] 4.2 meters

[Height] 2.68 meters

[Weight] 400kg

[Skills]

Beginner Skills: Soul Shock (Transcendent), Lightning Flash (Perfect)

Intermediate Skills: Thunder Spear (Perfect), Magic Shadow Strike (Mastered)

Advanced Skills: Vatican Sky Thunder Guidance (Mastered)

Innate Skills: Death Sound (Mastered), Netherflame of Dark Death (Perfect)

Passive Skill: Bathed in Thunder (Passive)

Four Phases' strength also made significant progress.

It awakened an advanced skill, Vatican Sky Thunder Guidance, which is an advanced thunder-type skill that the Heavenly Drum Thunder Sparrow clan can spontaneously awaken, possessing powerful destructive force.

During practice, it was not only grand in momentum but also had dense thunder, capable of both single-target and area attacks.

To better unleash the power of this advanced skill and to cooperate with the Bathed in Thunder passive stacking layers,

Chen Xing also specifically refined a skill for it, replacing a later awakened dark-attribute skill with Lightning Flash, which has a faster casting frequency.

Lightning Flash is a short-range displacement skill of the thunder attribute, somewhat similar to Magic Shadow Strike.

When cast, Four Phases' body would be enveloped in a large amount of lightning, then it would move to the target location at an extremely fast speed.

Due to the extreme speed of lightning, this skill was named Lightning Flash.

Although the casting distance of Lightning Flash is relatively short, its advantage lies in being able to be cast more frequently.

This not only allows for faster stacking of Bathed in Thunder's passive effect but also enhances Four Phases' rapid maneuverability over short distances.

The classroom door was pushed open.

Kuang Shiyi walked into the classroom, "Have you packed everything? Get ready to take the bus directly to the airport."

"Already packed!"

Tong Xuhua jumped up from his chair.

His face showed uncontrollable excitement, "Old Kuang, do you think we'll be able to see our faces on TV during the opening ceremony tomorrow? It would be great if they gave me a close-up, holy moly, to show my face in front of hundreds of millions of people!"

"Alright, whether you show your face or not is up to the production team, but as long as you all play well and make it far, there will be plenty of opportunities to show your faces!"