132: Bounty Issuer

Charlie was startled, and his back stiffened involuntarily.

"I have bodyguards nearby."

He whispered to Gu Xiaoyue, only to hear her make a tsk-tsk sound.

"Those bodyguards of yours aren't very good; the two people following us right now are very strong!"

Gu Xiaoyue could now summon seven pet beasts simultaneously, and her Mental Power was not inferior to that of a Legendary-tier Beastmaster.

She could sense that the two Beastmasters following her and Charlie were at least Quasi-Legendary tier.

Or—surely they weren't so unlucky as to be targeted by two Legendary-tier Beastmasters?

Chu Li's bodyguards were about the same as Charlie's, while Shui Lingyu's were stronger, but only at the Quasi-Legendary tier.

The shadow guards Xiao Han gave her were there to watch her in case she was abducted by the Xiao Family, and they probably wouldn't intervene unless her life was in danger.

"Boss, can you use concealment?"

Charlie was dumbfounded by the question, his brain racing as he thought, "No!"

Gu Xiaoyue and the others continued walking forward; if the enemy didn't move, neither would they.

Suddenly, the feeling of being followed vanished, and the killing intent disappeared without a trace.

In fact, she had just been planning to use invisibility and take them all into Xiao Hei's hidden space.

The pressure vanished, and Gu Xiaoyue breathed a sigh of relief, "Alarm cleared."

"Is it safe?"

Charlie's palms were sweaty; he might be targeted by Vincent's people, and there was also the Dark Night Baron eyeing the Hanxing Grass.

The Dark Night Baron was a bandit group from the Country of the Setting Sun.

When there were beast tides in the Country of the Setting Sun, they would help out, but usually, they would rob or kidnap nobles like him.

To the commoners, the Dark Night Baron were heroic thieves, but to Charlie, they were a nightmare!

He had lived under the shadow of the Dark Night Baron since he was a child, and no one knew how much he longed for strength.

He couldn't understand the freedom Harry wanted; could freedom without security really be called freedom?

What Charlie wanted was the freedom strong enough to support the Howard family!

He was very fortunate that the partner he chose was Gu Xiaoyue, and he had even managed to trade Hanxing Grass for Huanpo Lotus.

Last night, he had impatiently fed the Huanpo Lotus to his Hydra.

Once they woke up, they would be at the Mature Stage 4 Mid-tier and Mature Stage 4 Early-tier.

His Maima Fish and Water Sprite were only at Mature Stage 1, so they were not suitable for consuming the Huanpo Lotus.

Gu Xiaoyue noticed Charlie's nervous state and patted his shoulder reassuringly, "It's safe, don't worry, I will protect you with all my might!"

Duke Howard must have arranged sufficiently powerful shadow guards for the three brothers.

He just hadn't told them explicitly, wanting to motivate them and hoping they would develop the desire to become stronger on their own.

Gu Xiaoyue felt a sense of emotion at the silent greatness of fatherly love.

"I still want to trade with you, Yue."

Charlie still had fourteen stalks of Hanxing Grass, and he wanted to trade for a few more Huanpo Lotus to level up his pet beasts.

Gu Xiaoyue understood Charlie's thoughts; like her, he was eager to use spiritual plants to level up for the sake of strength.

"No problem, but I don't have any right now; you'll have to wait a while for the trade."

The four of them returned to the academy, where Gu Xiaoyue continued to train her skills with Chu Li and Shui Lingyu, while Charlie drank tea on the side.

Over a week passed like this, and Charlie also successfully bought a Fire Phoenix as he had wished.

His attributes were Water, Fire, Space, and Wood, so he was perfectly suited to contract the Fire Phoenix.

Therefore, the moment he obtained the Fire Phoenix, he contracted it.

Chu Li and Shui Lingyu were extremely displeased; they hadn't even practiced to the point of mastery, and now this foreigner wanted to join in too?

But he would be returning to the Country of the Setting Sun in less than seven months, having stayed in the Dragon Kingdom for that long.

Gu Xiaoyue said that she had already promised to protect Charlie's safety, and that once the little Fire Phoenix reached Young life stage 4, practicing with him to the intermediate level would be enough.

After all, the two of them wouldn't be far apart during this period.

Even so, Chu Li was a bit jealous, but since Gu Xiaoyue had already agreed to be Charlie's private bodyguard, he couldn't say anything.

Xiao Jiu woke up after absorbing the energy of the Huanpo Lotus, having leveled up to Mature Stage 7 Early-tier.

Gu Xiaoyue fed him a hua yu fruit; at the Immortal Tier Mature Stage 7, he could now speak.

She calculated that the Legendary-tier Beastmaster assessment would likely take a while longer, so she fed Xiao Jiu another stalk of Hanxing Grass.

A blush spread across Xiao Jiu's fair face, looking as smug as if Gu Xiaoyue was finally favoring him.

"Thank you, Xiao Yue!"

At this moment, Xiao Jiu no longer had the unruly appearance of someone clamoring to go into battle.

Just as she withdrew her consciousness from the Yu Beast Space, she saw a message Qin Shao had sent to Gu Xiaoyue.

The initiator of the bounty order had been found!

Mu Chaohua?

The name was very unfamiliar, and she looked at the person's photo again, having absolutely no impression of him.

When she finished reading Mu Chaohua's profile carefully, she felt a chill run down her spine.

He was a middle manager at the Shui Corporation; could it be that Shui Lingyu instigated him to do it?

No, she refused to believe it.

What purpose lay beneath Shui Lingyu's gentle exterior?

Gu Xiaoyue then thought, if Shui Lingyu truly wanted to kill her, he wouldn't have offered only 300,000 star coins.

Mu Chaohua was around the same age as Gu Qi and graduated from the same academy as Gu Qi; could it be that Gu Qi was the one behind it?

But that still wasn't right; if it were Gu Qi, he wouldn't have only put up 300,000!

After pondering for a while, her conclusion was—the bounty order was instigated by Shui Lingyu, but he didn't really want to kill her.

Could it be—simply a cliché plot to play the hero saving the damsel in distress?

Gu Xiaoyue shook her head, shaking those messy thoughts out of her mind.

Facts proved that she was right to have been somewhat guarded against Shui Lingyu before.

She continued to cultivate the Ice Flame, and her progress had reached 47%.

Twelve days later, Xiao Qi finished absorbing the energy of the Hanxing Grass and successfully leveled up to Mature Stage 8 Mid-tier.

Upon waking, his golden eyes were even more brilliant, and his beast form must have grown quite a bit larger as well.

Gu Xiaoyue calculated that absorbing Hanxing Grass required 21 days.

Sure enough, nine days later, Xiao Jiu also woke up, at Mature Stage 8 Early-tier.

Charlie's Fire Phoenix was at Young life stage 4, and he asked Gu Xiaoyue to go practice summoning skills.

She received a call from Qin Shao first, informing her that the Beastmaster assessment for the few of them was tomorrow.

Charlie was an Advanced Beastmaster, and Gu Xiaoyue teased him, "We're all going to take the assessment tomorrow; do you want to take the Quasi-Master tier assessment as well?"

Charlie's eyes lit up, "Can I, Yue?"

"Of course, the manager of the Beastmaster Association notified me that this time, the Quasi-Master, Quasi-Legendary, and Legendary tiers are all being assessed together. So it's no problem to bring you along tomorrow!"

The Beastmaster Association's tiers were globally standardized; it was the same whether Charlie took the assessment in the Country of the Setting Sun or in the Dragon Kingdom.

He hadn't expected to trade spiritual plants with Gu Xiaoyue before coming to the Dragon Kingdom.

At the same time, he was also glad that he had only fed one Huanpo Lotus to his Hydra, and hadn't rushed to feed the second one yet.

Otherwise, with his pet beasts in deep sleep, he wouldn't be able to participate in the Beastmaster assessment.

Thus, the next day, the four of them set off together from Nanya Academy and arrived at the Beastmaster Association.

She was still wondering if the assassins who had followed them when they went out shopping last time would come again.