40: I was fooled

Immediately after class, Su Ze returned to the breeding shed and found Lin Xi lying lazily on a chair, soaking up the sun.

He had just followed the method taught by the other man to get closer to Feng Qingyi, so when a problem arose, Su Ze thought of him first.

"How to build a good relationship with bird-type demonic beasts?" Lin Xi repeated Su Ze's question, taking off the folding fan he used to block the sun from his face.

"How should I know such things..."

Lin Xi was interrupted by Su Ze before he could finish: "As long as you tell me everything you know, I'll take over all your work from now on. You'll just have to lie here every day and collect two salaries."

"Oh, how could I possibly accept that..." Despite his words, he sat up straight in his chair.

*Cough, cough*, I'm a bit thirsty."

Su Ze quickly handed him a teapot.

"How can this stuff quench thirst? I want wine; that's the real thirst-quencher."

Su Ze walked into Lin Xi's room and, after rummaging through the messy space, found his small stainless steel hip flask.

Lin Xi took a satisfying sip before saying, "Using my own wine to curry favor with me doesn't count."

"I'll definitely bring a bottle of good wine tomorrow."

"Good, it's a deal!"

Lin Xi finally put down the hip flask, raised his head, and said, "You've asked the right person. This Old man has raised demonic beasts for so many years; I know these fellows' habits like the back of my hand."

"Take bird-type demonic beasts, for example. If you want to build a good relationship with them, there are plenty of ways."

Su Ze immediately pricked up his ears and listened intently.

"The first is the stroking method I taught you before."

"This is actually mimicking the behavior of birds. Birds preen each other politely to keep their feathers neat, clean, and smooth."

"You can gently stroke them and use your hand to smooth the feathers in the direction they grow, acting as the bird's companion. This action makes the bird feel comfortable."

"Especially helping them preen the parts they can't reach themselves, like the head, neck, and cheeks."

Su Ze nodded repeatedly. He remembered that when he stroked Feng Qingyi's face, she had acted exceptionally affectionate.

"What else?"

"Don't be in such a hurry."

Lin Xi took another sip of wine and continued, "The second point is feeding. In fact, raising demonic beasts isn't much different from raising pets for ordinary people. If you keep them full and well-fed, your relationship will improve."

"However, birds are a bit different from other demonic beasts. You have to hold the food they like in your hand and feed it into their mouths yourself. That has the best effect."

Su Ze recalled again that the few times Feng Qingyi had voluntarily come out of the beast taming space were when he was cooking and eating demon beast eggs.

It seemed the issue of preferred food was already solved; the current problem was feeding her by hand.

"Finally, there's one more point: birds all love cleanliness. So you should take them to bathe often. It must be clean water—the cleaner, the better."

"After the bath, you can personally use a towel to dry the bird's feathers until they're half-dry. This is also a great way for them to bond with you."

Su Ze was stunned for a moment.

While the first two points made a lot of sense, Su Ze was skeptical about this last one.

After all, Feng Qingyi spent most of her time transformed into a human. Helping her bathe in that form... Su Ze felt a slight surge of excitement just thinking about it.

"Alright, I've told you everything you asked. Now go help me with the work. Once those fellows are fed, you have to go to class. You have to finish four years of studies in one year; your schedule is very tight."

Su Ze smiled. This amount of coursework was nothing to him.

After all, his previous world was much more competitive than this one.

While feeding the bird-type demonic beasts, Su Ze tried all the methods Lin Xi had just mentioned and found that the results were indeed good.

Moreover, it wasn't just effective for one specific type of bird; it worked the same for all avian demonic beasts.

But whether it worked for those transformed into human form remained to be seen... Su Ze summarized his experience as he left; he was heading to a combat class next.

The sports field at the Beast Taming University was very different from ordinary universities. There were no soccer fields or basketball courts; instead, there were various arenas of all sizes.

He was now heading to one of the small arenas on the edge. Quite a few people had already gathered there, all waiting for the combat class.

"Brother Su Ze? You're here too!" In the crowd, Xu Yao, who was being annoyed to death by those around her, immediately saw Su Ze walking over and greeted him as if she had just been rescued.

The Combat Class Teacher, Combat Class Teacher Zhang Jian, was a brawny man with well-developed muscles. For the first class, he needed to understand everyone's combat abilities.

So, he had the students pair up for sparring matches.

Then a problem arose: no one was willing to team up with Su Ze.

Even though the news that Su Ze couldn't summon his Diamond-rank Demonic Beast had spread after the previous class, no one dared to step forward and verify the accuracy of that news.

Only Xu Yao wanted to pair with Su Ze, but he didn't want to fight her, so he flatly refused.

The teacher on the arena also seemed a bit troubled watching this scene.

Fortunately, there was an odd number of students in this class, and Su Ze happened to be the extra one.

"In that case, Student Su Ze, you can pair up with me. We'll give the other students a demonstration first."

Su Ze didn't refuse either.

With his current level, sparring with the others felt a bit like an adult bullying children.

He also wanted to test the level of the school's teachers.

Just as Su Ze got onto the arena and took his stance, Combat Class Teacher Zhang Jian suddenly shouted, "Wait a moment..."

Then he scratched his head and said somewhat sheepishly, "*Cough, cough*, I know how powerful you are, so I hope you'll show some mercy later."

Generally, in a teacher-student spar, it should be the teacher who holds back, but Su Ze was clearly an outlier.

Unlike Chen Xin, who was only responsible for teaching theoretical classes, he was of the combat faction.

Therefore, he had also been present at Tianyun Volcano that day and had witnessed Su Ze burning the Fusang Dark Guards with his own eyes.

Even now, the thought of it made his throat feel dry. He didn't think he would be any more fire-resistant than the Fusang Dark Guards.

"Don't worry, Teacher, no problem," Su Ze replied, patting his chest.

After all, this wasn't a life-or-death battle. He wouldn't forcibly use Feng Qingyi's power, as that would be a huge drain on his Spiritual Power.

So, accompanied by a flash of golden light, the Void Spirit Turtle appeared on the arena.

Zhang Jian also breathed a sigh of relief and summoned his own beast—it was a Silver grade Black Panther.

After transformation, it became a pair of black gauntlets. As he swung his arms, gusts of wind followed his punches.

"You'd better be careful!"

With that, he threw a punch.

The transformed void spirit shield barely blocked the strike. Su Ze saw a fleeting smile on the teacher's face that didn't match his honest appearance.

Only then did Su Ze realize he had been tricked—the man was actually playing for keeps!