39: Young birds shouldn't see these.
Soon, the teacher walked over to Su Ze's side, and the gazes of the other students followed her.
"Eh? Where's the beauty who was just next to him?"
"I don't know, she doesn't seem to be in the classroom anymore."
"Wait, don't you guys think he looks a bit familiar..."
"Isn't that the guy who supposedly contracted a Diamond-rank Spirit Beast!"
"It really is! My god, does that mean I'm about to see what a Diamond-rank Demonic Beast looks like?"
...Their conversation reached Chen Xin's ears. Since she wasn't a combat-type Beast Tamer, she hadn't been present on the day of the Beast Taming College Entrance Examination and hadn't seen the Golden Feather Phoenix Bird's splendor with her own eyes.
She happened to walk right up to Su Ze's side and asked, "Student, where is your spirit beast? Let me take a look for you as well."
Even as a teacher, she had never seen a Diamond-rank Spirit Beast.
In the history of Azure Dragon Beast Taming University, a Diamond-rank Spirit Beast had only appeared once, creating the legend of Dragon Tamer Xiao Sheng.
At that time, she hadn't yet come here to teach, which had become a regret in Chen Xin's heart.
One must know that the artificial breeding and cultivation of Diamond-rank Demonic Beasts had always been a blank field; after all, many people lived their entire lives without ever seeing a Diamond-rank Demonic Beast.
And now, such an opportunity was right in front of her. Perhaps... she would have the chance to fill this blank and leave her name in the annals of history!
Thinking of this, Chen Xin couldn't help but get excited, her heavy breathing causing her full bust to heave and surge continuously.
But unfortunately, because of the misunderstanding just now, Feng Qingyi had already returned to the beast taming space to sulk in isolation.
So Su Ze had no choice but to settle for the second-best option and chose the Void Spirit Turtle, which had been kicked out of the beast taming space by Feng Qingyi and could only stay in his backpack. Coincidentally, Su Ze was also curious about the Void Spirit Turtle's gender.
After all, turtles weren't like other animals, and Su Ze didn't know where to start to distinguish their gender.
"Teacher, this is my spirit beast. Could you please help me see if it's a Male Turtle or a Female Turtle?" Su Ze handed the Void Spirit Turtle, which had already grown to the size of an A4 sheet of paper, to Chen Xin.
"Quick, look, is that a Diamond-rank Demonic Beast?"
"Didn't I hear it was a Phoenix Bird? Why... is it a turtle? It doesn't look domineering at all..."
"Is this really a Diamond-rank Demonic Beast? Could it be a hoax?"
...Chen Xin's smile also froze on her face.
Although the Void Spirit Turtle was extremely rare—so much so that none of the other students could recognize it—
As a teacher, she recognized it at a glance, so she clearly knew that this was actually a Gold-rank demonic beast, not the Diamond-rank Demonic Beast she had been expecting.
"Teacher Chen? Is there something wrong with my spirit beast?" Su Ze asked as he looked at the dazed Chen Xin.
Chen Xin snapped back to her senses and said, "Ah! No. It's just... you should have another demonic beast, right? The diamond rank one!"
She widened her eyes and leaned in close to ask, her chest just a hair's breadth away from a 'ball-to-person' collision, a face-to-face greeting.
Su Ze hurriedly dodged the incoming massive objects and said, "That's... that's right."
"Then why don't you let it out?"
Su Ze sighed and said somewhat helplessly, "Sorry teacher, I can't call her out right now..."
In fact, if Su Ze chose to summon her forcibly, Feng Qingyi wouldn't be able to escape being pulled out of the beast taming space by the contract.
But he was currently at a critical stage of building a good relationship with her.
A small misunderstanding had already occurred just now, and Su Ze didn't want to force her again and lower their intimacy.
Besides, this wasn't an important matter; Feng Qingyi's gender was perfectly clear.
However, in the eyes of others, this took on a different meaning.
"As expected, that Diamond-rank Spirit Beast thing was all a boast!"
"But... I was at the scene that day and witnessed everything with my own eyes..."
"Then it must be that he can't use the spirit beast's power at will. After all, with such a huge gap in levels, maybe it would eat him, its master, as soon as it's summoned. That's why he doesn't dare to summon it!"
Everyone came to a realization and nodded repeatedly.
"Makes sense! I heard he was just lucky; he just happened to be nearby when the Diamond-rank Demonic Beast hatched and contracted it!"
"In other words... if I had been the one there at the time..."
Thinking of this, everyone couldn't help but feel envious and jealous.
Chen Xin also speculated the same, so she didn't force Su Ze to continue summoning his spirit beast.
After all, if it were summoned and went out of control, she wouldn't be able to beat it either.
She could only pick up the Void Spirit Turtle, look it over carefully, and say, "This is a Male Turtle. It looks like it only hatched recently and hasn't reached sexual maturity yet. What a pity, it can't be used for Breeding Experiments."
Although it wasn't as attractive as breeding a Diamond-rank Demonic Beast, it was enough to pique her interest.
Seeing this, Su Ze continued to ask, "Teacher, how did you determine its gender and whether it's sexually mature?"
Chen Xin also returned to her normal teaching state. While pacing to the podium, she said, "That's a very good question. Students can easily determine the gender of demonic beasts like cats and dogs, but they have no way to start with demonic beasts like turtles, birds, fish, and snakes."
"So for this first lesson, I will teach you the methods to identify various types of demonic beasts."
"Taking Student Su Ze's Void Spirit Turtle as an example, there are four points to note when distinguishing male and Female Turtles."
"First, look at the tail. The Female Turtle's tail is thin and short, with the cloaca inside the edge of the carapace; the Male Turtle's tail is thick and long, with the cloaca outside the edge of the carapace."
"Second, look at the carapace. A Male Turtle's carapace is generally longer, while a Female Turtle's carapace is generally rounder. This difference might be formed because the Female Turtle consumes more food or can store more eggs in her body."
"Third, look at the plastron. A Male Turtle's plastron is concave, meaning the plastron is not flat, but rather indented near the tail."
The Female Turtle's plastron is flat, and some turtles raised with heating even have convex ones.
This plastron structure of turtles is to facilitate mating. With the Male Turtle on top, the concave plastron perfectly fits over the Female Turtle's carapace."
Saying this, Chen Xin even drew a simple diagram on the blackboard.
"It looks roughly like this."
The crowd below was in an uproar. Feng Qingyi, who had finally managed to poke her head out from the beast taming space, saw what was drawn on the blackboard and immediately dove back in.
As an underage little bird, she couldn't watch these things!
"The last point is to look at the front claws' nails, but this applies to adult turtle-type demonic beasts of sufficient size. Because a Male Turtle's nails appear longer, while a Female Turtle's are shorter."
"Because Male Turtles have to defend their territory and compete for mates, they often need to fight other Male Turtles. When fighting, they often need to use their front claw nails, so their front claw nails will be longer than those of Female Turtles."
Su Ze looked down at his Void Spirit Turtle's short, tender pink nails; no wonder it was recognized at a glance as a newly hatched, immature demonic beast.
Afterward, Chen Xin introduced identification methods for snakes, birds, and other demonic beasts.
Among them, birds with longer tail feathers are generally male, while those with shorter ones are female, because males need to compete in brilliance to attract the attention of the opposite sex.
Su Ze recalled Feng Qingyi's Phoenix Bird form and confirmed once again that she wasn't a cross-dressing guy.
Furthermore, Chen Xin's vivid illustrations, combined with the way she would gesture on her own body when she got excited, resulted in Su Ze still wanting more even when the class ended.