142: Early birthday party

Although Gu Xiaoyue was deep in thought, her peripheral vision remained fixed on Catherine.

Seeing her lunge with a dagger, Gu Xiaoyue dodged to the side.

With a backhand strike, she knocked the dagger out of Catherine's hand.

Catherine, unwilling to be subdued, drew a hidden weapon and slashed toward Gu Xiaoyue's throat.

"Are you done yet?!"

Gu Xiaoyue had intended to spare her life, but Catherine was relentless with her lethal attacks.

Since that was the case, Gu Xiaoyue delivered an elbow strike that sent Catherine flying back three meters.

She raised her hand and cast Thunderbolt Spell, frying Catherine's hair into an afro.

Catherine's face turned pitch black as she exhaled a puff of white smoke, rolled her eyes, and passed out.

"Still not dead?"

Either Catherine's body had been strengthened enough times, or her own Thunderbolt Spell wasn't strong enough.

To prevent her from faking unconsciousness, Gu Xiaoyue finished her off with a sword strike.

After Catherine died, a whole heap of items clattered to the ground.

Identification papers, beast feed, and some wilderness survival supplies.

The Three-Headed Snake and the Lime Elf that had been summoned earlier also turned back into beast eggs.

There were three more beast eggs that hadn't been summoned.

Gu Xiaoyue gathered them all and returned them to her Yu Beast Space, along with Catherine's corpse.

"Could the most handsome Hou please do me a favor and cremate her for me?"

Gu Xiaoyue knew a thing or two about Hou's temperament by now; he was a creature that needed to be stroked in the right direction.

When asking him for a favor, you had to butter him up first.

Upon hearing her request, Hou said haughtily, "If you want this master to do something for you, you'd better keep me in mind when there are benefits!"

With that, he unleashed a burst of fire, reducing Catherine's corpse to ashes.

The benefits Hou mentioned were naturally spiritual plants for leveling up. Gu Xiaoyue didn't respond and headed straight back to the academy.

Charlie was pacing back and forth in his private dormitory.

"Allen, do you think Yue might be in danger?"

He was nervous and restless, trying to ease his anxiety by talking to Allen.

Allen leaned slightly, replying respectfully.

"You must trust Miss Gu, and even more so, trust your own judgment, sir."

"Yes, yes, she is the strongest I have ever seen! She will definitely come back safely!"

Before he could finish his sentence, he heard the sound of Gu Xiaoyue's room door opening.

"She's back!"

Charlie rushed to Gu Xiaoyue's door, eager to push it open.

But then he remembered the awkwardness of not knocking last time.

He knocked on the door, took a deep breath, and straightened his clothes.

From inside the room came Gu Xiaoyue's voice, telling him to enter.

Charlie pushed the door open to see Gu Xiaoyue lounging on the sofa.

"Yue, are you—"

He wanted to ask Gu Xiaoyue if she was injured.

But seeing her appearance, she seemed completely unharmed, so he swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue.

Gu Xiaoyue tossed Catherine's identification out.

"This job of yours isn't easy to handle!"

Charlie picked it up and took a look; it was the ID of Catherine, the Witch from the Dark Night Baron bandit organization.

He asked excitedly, "How did you get this, Yue?"

Gu Xiaoyue looked at him as if he were an idiot.

"What do you think? Could I have gotten it if I hadn't killed her?"

She rolled her eyes at Charlie. "I didn't want to kill her either; I wanted to capture her and interrogate her about the Dark Night Baron. But she kept trying to kill me. If I hadn't killed her, I'd probably be the one who ended up dead!"

"Uh-huh!"

Charlie nodded like a chick pecking at rice; with his safety guaranteed, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Then does that mean I'm safe in the Dragon Kingdom?"

The image he imagined of Gu Xiaoyue patting her chest and declaring he was safe did not materialize.

Gu Xiaoyue replied very seriously, "It's hard to say. Although I killed one, there is actually another one who hasn't appeared yet."

Duke Howard had not disclosed to Charlie that he had arranged secret guards for him.

Gu Xiaoyue was only guessing, but it was certain that there was more than one assassin!

"You don't need to be too nervous, just continue with your normal training."

Charlie nodded thoughtfully and then asked about exchanging for the Huanpo Lotus.

Gu Xiaoyue thought for a moment. She did indeed have three Huanpo Lotus left, but she didn't want to trade them all.

"I only have two Huanpo Lotus now. Are you willing to trade them for two stalks of Hanxing Grass?"

She had a mischievous smile on her face, making it clear she intended to take advantage of Charlie.

Charlie thought for a brief moment and agreed!

Compared to Hanxing Grass, he valued Gu Xiaoyue more. On the surface, he was taking a loss.

But everything Gu Xiaoyue did demonstrated her value.

Even if he lost the struggle for the title in the future, being on good terms with Gu Xiaoyue made taking a small loss now a worthwhile investment.

Gu Xiaoyue was satisfied as she put away the two stalks of Hanxing Grass.

"I'm going to rest now."

She waved her hand, signaling for Charlie to leave.

Seeing that Gu Xiaoyue wanted to rest, Charlie immediately left with Catherine's identification.

By evening, Ying Long and Hou had successively advanced to the mid-stage of the sixth rank of maturity.

Ying Long's skills had all reached the advanced level. She asked Gu Xiaoyue for a Huanpo Lotus, her tone not as forceful as Hou's.

"Well, well! One moment of carelessness and you're trying to raid the home base!"

Hou popped out, spinning in circles in his anxiety.

"Woman, give me the Huanpo Lotus! And then the Hanxing Grass, I need to level up!"

Hou's behavior made Gu Xiaoyue even less inclined to give him the Huanpo Lotus.

She fed the Huanpo Lotus to Ying Long.

"There aren't any left for now; this was the last Huanpo Lotus. You'll just have to wait!"

Ying Long swallowed the Huanpo Lotus, and a strange light flickered on her body. She bowed to Gu Xiaoyue before returning to her compartment to sleep.

"Biased woman!"

Hou grumbled in dissatisfaction, only to find Xiao Qi staring at him.

Daring not to act out, he had no choice but to continue training his skills.

Two weeks later, Ying Long woke up, and Gu Xiaoyue fed her another stalk of Hanxing Grass.

Hou was even more unhappy. Every time Gu Xiaoyue's consciousness entered the Yu Beast Space, she could see Hou glaring at her resentfully.

Qingqing also advanced to the mid-stage of the sixth rank of maturity.

Gu Xiaoyue called Qin Shao to book an assessment for the quasi-legendary Beastmaster level.

"What? Quasi-legendary? Gu Xiaoyue, listen to yourself! Hahaha, you are just too amazing!"

Not to mention that Gu Xiaoyue was only twenty years old, just this year alone, the number of Beastmasters who passed the quasi-legendary assessment could be counted on one hand!

"What about the information I asked for last time? You still haven't given it to me?"

Gu Xiaoyue hadn't forgotten; she still needed to investigate Mu Chaohua to see if he had issued the bounty himself or if he was acting on someone else's orders.

"I remember, but the problem is, there's nothing new compared to what I sent you before."

Gu Xiaoyue rolled her eyes and asked Qin Shao to keep investigating.

The date of the National Competition was drawing closer, and Ye Wanrou seemed a bit nervous.

Gu Xiaoyue's birthday was also approaching, so she specifically invited everyone to dinner in advance.

Of course, she also invited Shui Lingyu.

During the meal, she explained that the reason for celebrating her birthday early was that she hoped everyone wouldn't go to any expense or trouble preparing gifts for her.

Not only that, she also gave everyone a hua yu fruit.

Ye Wanrou pouted, "Not having to pick a birthday gift for Xiao Yue takes away some of the fun."

"If you want to give a gift, you can do it anytime, right, Xiao Yue!"

After Chu Li finished speaking, he took out a weapon over a foot long that was flashing with purple lightning from his Yu Beast Space—the Ground-Breaking Purple Thunder Spear.

Gu Xiaoyue's eyes went wide; was this the weapon Hou had mentioned earlier?