94: wake

The salary of the Great Xia Spirit Guards was quite generous, at least reaching a middle-income level.

In addition, they also received military-grade quenching thought beads as part of their pay.

To an ordinary person, such a thing might just be a pretty bead, but to a Beast Tamer, it was the most precious treasure, worth far more than their actual wages.

However, military-grade quenching thought beads were not allowed to be sold privately by Great Xia Spirit Guards; any violation found would result in severe punishment from the Legion Headquarters.

After distributing all the quenching thought beads he had received, the crowd continued to look at Su Ze eagerly.

They had all learned from Sun Hao just now that Su Ze had prepared a secret surprise for them, but they didn't know what it could be.

“What do you think the surprise is?”

“I don't know. Could it be gold?”

“Gold bars don't mean much to us, and Captain Su Ze doesn't seem like such a vulgar person. The surprise he mentioned must be something that helps improve our strength.”

“Then I guess... could Captain Su Ze be planning to take out his own share of quenching thought beads as a reward?”

“Don't say it, that's actually possible!”

...As the crowd chattered and discussed, they felt this was the most likely surprise.

After all, Su Ze didn't come from a great clan and couldn't produce any particularly rare treasures.

But as a Detachment Commander of the Great Xia Spirit Guards, the number of quenching thought beads in his salary was quite large; besides that, he shouldn't be able to produce anything else that could be called a surprise.

“But... Captain Su Ze is young and promising; he needs those quenching thought beads more than we do.”

“And he's about to participate in the Beast Taming Grand Competition. Those quenching thought beads could help him boost his strength one last time before the match, so we absolutely cannot take them!”

“Right! We can't take them!” The crowd echoed one after another upon hearing this.

If it weren't for Su Ze, they would still be suffering under Jiang Sheng's high-intensity training, so they absolutely could not harm his interests.

Su Ze didn't know what they were considering, so he mysteriously pulled out a demon beast egg on stage. However, after waiting a moment without hearing any cheers, he was slightly stunned.

The people below were silent because they hadn't expected Su Ze's surprise to be this—it was just a demon beast egg?

While valuable, a Silver grade beast wouldn't improve their strength, and a newly hatched monster had to be raised slowly, which wasn't worth the effort.

Unless it was a gold-rank monster beast egg, but how could that be?

How could such a precious item be easily given away as a reward?

Sun Hao spoke up from the side to support him, “Captain Su Ze, this demon beast egg looks quite extraordinary. It shouldn't be simple, right?”

He was just trying to be supportive, but Su Ze nodded and said, “It's alright. This is a gold-rank monster beast egg. I plan to reward it to the person who performs the best this month.”

The crowd's cold reaction was unexpected for Su Ze, but he thought it was a good thing that everyone had such good composure.

Just as Su Ze was thinking this, a synchronized sound of gasping for air suddenly came from below.

“What?! A gold-rank monster beast egg?!”

“Is this for real?!”

“Looking at the Captain's face, he doesn't seem to be joking!”

“My god, this is too lavish. Is Captain Su Ze really not the illegitimate son of some great family?”

...Su Ze was more satisfied with everyone's current attitude; only with motivation could they be better inspired.

“So, the person who performed the best this month is...” Su Ze intentionally drew out his words, making everyone crane their necks in anticipation.

“Sun Hao!” Su Ze said loudly.

He then handed the demon beast egg into his hands. Sun Hao was stunned for a moment, then excitedly pulled the demon beast egg into his arms.

No one was surprised by this decision.

Everyone had seen the effort Sun Hao had put in these past few days.

It could be said that besides the five like Skinny Monkey who were being whipped into working desperately, Sun Hao had done the most work.

Precisely because he had lost a hand, he was always afraid he wasn't doing well enough or doing enough.

However, it would be a lie to say the others didn't feel any regret; no one didn't want a Gold-rank beast.

Standing on the high ground, Su Ze took in everyone's expressions and then continued, “This is only the beginning!”

“From now on, every month when salaries are paid, I will tally up the best performer of the previous month and reward them with a gold-rank monster beast egg! This excludes those who have already received the reward!”

The crowd looked at each other in disbelief, then suddenly burst into cheers.

Everyone felt full of motivation, wishing they could go to work right this instant.

As for those Silver grade eggs, Su Ze didn't bring them out.

To them, Silver grade demon beast eggs were like chicken ribs—of little value.

It would be better to send them to the kitchen to add a dish for everyone.

Su Ze had Sun Hao follow him with the demon beast egg. First, he had him drip blood to transfer ownership of the egg, and then he told him the method for hatching it.

“gold-rank monster beast egg: 'I lack a beating of love.' It hatches through being struck. The stronger the striking force, the stronger the hatched monster will be.”

After Su Ze finished speaking, Sun Hao gave him a puzzled look, clearly never having heard of such a strange hatching method.

But he didn't question it, instead saying, “It just so happens our camp needs foundations laid recently. I'll take this egg over and have it beaten along with them.”

...Leaving the camp, Su Ze had originally planned to return home to prepare for the trip to the Imperial Capital in a few days.

But just as he was about to reach home, he suddenly felt a burst of throbbing from a beast taming contract.

Su Ze's heart skipped a beat as well.

“This is... Feng Qingyi's contract! She succeeded?!” Su Ze said excitedly.

He had originally prepared himself for the possibility that Feng Qingyi wouldn't complete her Nirvana before the competition started.

In that case, he would have to miss out on the first-place reward, the wutong fruit. He didn't think he could take first place relying only on the Shadow Moon Wolf King.

He wasn't even a match for Kuang Yi from his own school right now, let alone the people from Imperial Capital Beast Taming University.

But now that Feng Qingyi had completed her Nirvana, everything was different!

Though he didn't dare guarantee a win—after all, the top students at Imperial Capital University all came from the Four Great Families, heirs raised with almost the entire country's resources concentrated on them.

Most importantly, Su Ze was likely the only one participating as a first-year freshman.

The others were all four to five years older than Su Ze; those few years were enough for them to be a large step ahead of him.

But at least it would make Su Ze a favorite to win, allowing him to try and fight for it.

So he immediately turned around and rushed back toward the Beast Taming University.

The throbbing from the contract was becoming more and more obvious; Feng Qingyi was about to wake up!