68: Return the Liuyue Star Spirit

After a sleepless night, Luo Chen spent a long time tidying up before finally getting all his beasts settled.

By the time he snapped out of it, he realized it was already the next morning.

Going a day without rest wasn't a major issue, so Luo Chen stepped out of the secret realm and headed to the first floor to see if Ban Mo, who had been left behind by Luo Yuheng yesterday, was still there.

As he reached the first floor, the aroma of food wafted over, instantly piquing the appetite he had worked up over the night.

Looking toward the source of the scent, he saw a table in the lounge area piled high with a lavish breakfast.

Luo Chen looked at Ban Mo, who was sitting quietly by the table, and asked curiously, "Did you buy all of this?"

Ban Mo nodded. "I didn't know what you liked, so I bought a few different varieties."

Luo Chen sat down at the table without ceremony and pulled a plate of soup dumplings toward himself.

Taking a bite, the rich broth and the unique fragrance of spirit beast meat exploded in his mouth, making it nearly impossible to stop.

Luo Chen stuffed one soup dumpling after another into his mouth, saying indistinctly, "Our family isn't picky; any breakfast will do."

Seeing Luo Chen's satisfied expression, Ban Mo swallowed. Even though he had already eaten, he suddenly felt a bit hungry again.

During breakfast, Luo Chen habitually opened his terminal, planning to scroll through the trending news.

The moment he turned on the phone, the screen was flooded with the pinging of notifications.

Luo Chen looked closely and saw that most of them were news articles shared by his younger brother.

This thoroughly piqued Luo Chen's curiosity; why would his brother, who rarely read the news, be sending him so many updates?

Luo Chen clicked into the most recent one.

[China's network service technology upgrade and iteration successful; the 'Era of Isolated Cities' for each city may be coming to an end as local area networks return to the Internet Era.]

[The Illusion World will no longer be used solely for Breeder examinations but will be popularized for every Beast Master in the country; we are about to welcome a true Second World.]

[The National Youth Breeder Competition and Youth Beast Master Competition have been restarted; who will become the prodigies of this era?]

[A boon for all commoner Breeders: National Elder Zhuang Sheng publicly releases over a thousand complete Evolution Paths he personally created.]

[National Elder Zhuang Sheng emphasizes the importance of patent protection; after the Second World Illusion World opens, Breeders can upload their unique discoveries of evolution or cultivation methods to the Illusion World,]

[thereby applying for patents. If the patent is used by others in the future, a certain fee must be paid to the patent holder.]

[National Elder Zhuang Sheng also stated that only the first person to apply for a patent will enjoy patent protection; if subsequent applicants submit duplicates, they will not be recognized by the Illusion World.]

[The Council of Elders has passed National Elder Zhuang Sheng's new proposal: every Chinese citizen has the right to become a Beast Master. Anyone over the age of twelve can apply to the local City Lord's Manor for a beast of four-star rank or higher.]

[The Giant City Construction Plan: China will use the existing ten Upper Cities as hubs to build super Giant Cities capable of accommodating a population of one billion.]

...

Luo Chen read through the news articles one by one, wondering if he was being pranked. How could China suddenly have so many major moves overnight?

He put down his terminal and looked at the calm Ban Mo, asking tentatively, "Have you seen the news?"

Ban Mo raised an eyebrow, his expression still largely unchanged. "I have."

Seeing his flat reaction, Luo Chen thought he had just seen some normal news from Qingyang City, unlike the earth-shattering reports Luo Yang had shared with him.

It seemed that what Luo Yang shared was indeed fake.

So he picked up his terminal and sent a message to Luo Yang.

[Luo Chen: You brat, you've learned how to pull pranks now?]

Before he could get a reply from Luo Yang, Ban Mo added as if remembering something,

"Are you talking about the competitions or the Second World?"

"Huh?"

The terminal in Luo Chen's hand vibrated.

[Chenyangs Light: ???]

Luo Chen glanced guiltily at the terminal, his throat bobbing as he spoke with a slightly dry voice, "These are all... real?"

Ban Mo opened his own terminal and showed him the official page of the Qingyang City Lord's Manor.

"These messages were all sent by the authorities; they shouldn't be fake."

[Chenyangs Light: What prank?]

[Chenyangs Light: This was news read out in class at school this morning, and the officials posted it too.]

[Chenyangs Light: Also, the official spokesperson for the Council of Elders read out part of the news,]

Seeing the stream of accusatory messages from Luo Yang, Luo Chen quickly retracted his message and replied with a "Got it."

He acted as if the incident where he wrongly accused Luo Yang had never happened.

Since the news was real, Luo Chen felt a very unsettling vibe.

Why announce so many things in a single night? It felt as if time was extremely urgent.

Luo Chen recalled the content of the news he had seen; it seemed these policies were all related to or involved the general public and the grassroots level.

Universal beast mastery to raise the strength of China's grassroots residents, talent selection, and resource provision to cultivate geniuses and increase high-level combat power.

What was all this for? Was a new round of beast tides about to erupt?

He seemed to recall his old man saying that the next round of spiritual energy recovery was coming; perhaps it was related to that?

As a newcomer to the beast world, he guessed and guessed, thinking any reason was possible.

Sighing, Luo Chen decided to clear his head and not think too much.

In any case, he was still a small fry; he'd let the big shots handle it while he focused on his own growth.

Once Luo Chen had sorted his thoughts, he gave Ban Mo an awkward smile. "Haha, it's good that it's real."

*Knock knock.*

A knocking sound came from the shop door. Through the one-way glass, Luo Chen saw Chang Guiheng, whom he hadn't seen for several days.

Oh, he almost forgot—this was a creditor, wasn't it?

However, Luo Chen was now able to delete the Moonstar Spirit's memories of being in the pet shop, so he could receive him with a clear conscience.

If Chang Guiheng hadn't come in the next few days, he was planning to send him a message saying he had prepared the materials and hatched the egg.

But even though he had arrived, he still had to say that, because in these few days, the Moonstar Spirit had already reached Spirit Beast Seven-Star.

He didn't know how much Chang Guiheng knew about the Moonstar Spirit race, but the signs of having been hatched for a long time would be easy to spot.

So, after Luo Chen opened the shop door, he hit Chang Guiheng with a barrage of words.

"Brother Guiheng, you've been gone for quite a while. Do you remember that egg you asked me to hatch last time? The very beautiful one."

"I hatched it several days ago, but I went next door to look for you and you were never there. Now that you're finally here, I'll go upstairs and bring it down for you."

Chang Guiheng was caught off guard by Luo Chen's enthusiasm, but he quickly recovered and said gloomily,

"Brother Luo, I believe I told you that if anything happened, you could contact me on the terminal."

"Ah, is that so?" Luo Chen slapped his forehead. "Isn't it because cross-city communication is too expensive? We common folk have to save wherever we can."

"Wait here, I'll go bring the beast down for you."

Chang Guiheng hadn't intended to be difficult. Seeing that Luo Chen was finally willing to hand over the beast, he felt a bit excited inside, though he maintained his composure and nodded with feigned reserve.

Chang Guiheng looked at the table full of breakfast in the shop and at Ban Mo, who was sitting upright at the table, and nodded in greeting.

Ban Mo returned the smile. Neither spoke, and the scene became quiet for a moment.

Soon, Luo Chen brought the Moonstar Spirit out from the secret realm.

Before bringing it out, he had naturally fed it a weakened version of the Dust-Forgetting Flower.

Its eyes were now clear, having forgotten its experiences within the shop's secret realm. It only remembered that it had been an egg with Chang Guiheng.

It wondered why it was now in the arms of this strange youth and had already been successfully hatched.

When Luo Chen brought the Moonstar Spirit to the first floor, it sensed the familiar aura on Chang Guiheng and immediately left Luo Chen's embrace.

Like a fledgling returning to its nest, it lunged into the arms of the chubby Chang Guiheng.

Chang Guiheng was also very excited. He lifted the Moonstar Spirit and looked it over. After confirming there were no problems, he thanked Luo Chen solemnly.

"Thank you, Brother Luo, for hatching Moonstar."

Luo Chen didn't care about these verbal thanks. He cleared his throat and took a businesslike tone. "Ahem, this hatching cost a total of thirty million spirit coins."

Seeing that the little fat man didn't seem short on money, Luo Chen figured that if he asked for too little, the man might suspect something was wrong. So, Luo Chen quoted a price he considered quite high.