"Whoa!"
"Wow!"
"What is that!"
"It's a turtle, idiot!"
Shouts of amazement came from the crowd of grade schoolers at the fearsome turtle beast that shared the same name as the glasses kid.
Then a little girl with braided pigtails, glasses, and a button up stepped up and opened up a tablet.
"That's a River Splitting Earth Tortoise. It has affinities in the earth and water elements!" She proclaimed while typing furiously on the tablet. Seemingly researching on the spot.
"The River Splitting Earth Tortoise is a subspecies of the Shattering Earth Tortoise, whose main affinity is earth! The River Splitting variety is from a branch that houses near rapid rivers! They can change their feet to flippers at will, so they can move in water just as well as the earth, though they still classify as a tortoise nonetheless! Their main diet is shrimp and, like all beasts with shells, they are best in defense. Though their shells are weaker than the main branch due to their water affinity, they compensate by cultivating techniques using mud, which is more compact than soil and more flexible than stone! They're also able to fire high pressure water streams from their mouths, and can live up to a million years! Their weakness lies in their hollow shell that helps them swim and float, but makes it easier to break, especially from the underbelly!" She was apparently very well learned and loudly spout out all this information for everyone to hear, prompting claps and exclamations of praise.
"H-hey! Stop that! You're telling everyone how to beat it" The glasses boy blushed and shouted angrily.
"I can't, it's in my character!" She shrugged and ignored his complaints.
"Hmph. Your meager turtle is nothing. All that matters is the victor in the end! Go Xiaohei!" Chen Ling, unable to play along well, listened to Xiaohei's script.
At that kept off her shoulder and landed gracefully on the playground, standing across Xuanwu in the empty field.
"Hmm... This one is trickier. On close observation, Xiaohei actually is from a tiger family, so he's no ordinary cat! From the extending tail and dark fur, I believe he should be a Binding Shadow Tiger!" From some hints, she took some shots on Xiaohei's identity, since his tail is disguised and wings are hidden, he just looks like a black tiger with a long tail.
"The Binding Shadow Tiger, like most tigers, are a solitary species. It is usually nocturnal and only hunts at night. They also have darkness affinity, so they aren't good with sunlight. That may explain the sunglasses he wears all the time! The Binding Shadow Tiger is a fearsome predator that usually lives in the jungles of Africa! They're the kind of apex predator that never lets its prey go, and will bind their ankles or waists with their distinctive long tail, and then goes for the kill with their fangs. They're an ambush predator, so their very stealthy, especially in the darkness with their darkness affinity. Their cultivation focuses on silent and mysterious movements and deadly fangs that can even pierce bone!" Once again, an extremely Detailed explanation, even looking to species in African to find Xiaohei's identity. Even Xiaohei was impressed.
"Wow, so it's from Africa?!"
"Where'd Chen Ling get him?"
"Is there some vendor that deals in exotic animals?"
"Hmph! It's hopeless! Xuanwu is in the soul refining stage, a beast contracted to you can't be any stronger than body refining. In the end, our levels are just too different." The glasses boy sighed arrogantly, as if the River Splitting Earth Tortoise was his own and not his older brother's.
Though it was not strange, as beasts that can cultivate, also know as spirit beasts, especially ones with potential, were expensive, because they're extremely difficult to catch, as one may have to venture into dangerous wildernesses to catch one. To catch a young one is even more difficult, as they are usually with their families, so having a contract beast from the beginning of their cultivating journey is expensive and difficult, this being a sign of status.
Naturally, there are domesticated, bred beasts, that are cheaper. But not by much due to high profit values and to stabilize the market. The downside to a domesticated and reared beasts is that they're usually weaker, and the facilities are expensive to maintain.
At the thought of the poor girl having a rare exotic beast, the boys gritted their teeth in jealousy, they were definitely going to beg their parents for something even better!
"Grr, Xuanwu! Smash that stupid cat!" At his frustration, the glasses boy ended up breaking character and sending a ruthless order.
The tortoise personally wanted to start with a water gun, but it was ordered to follow the boys orders, and as a slave contract recipient, it had no choice but to follow orders, no matter how foolish.
He lumbered forward obediently, and with surprising speed too. It's shell being hollow and lighter makes it somewhat faster than other tortoises.
But though fast for a tortoise , a tortoise is still a tortoise, and it's speed and agility was naturally no compare to Xiaohei's.
Xiaohei didn't take the group of youths very seriously, as he had plenty of experience killing soul refining experts, if they could even be called that.
"Go Xiaohei, run forward and jump!" She just said what Xiaohei told her to say, so Xiaohei would look like a normal slave beast, and still act freely. She was supposed to learn a little bit about combat from Xiaohei, who's skills were definitely top tier.
Xiaohei's eyes flashed and he ran directly toward the turtle, surprising everyone. He then leaped into the air.
"Xuanwu! Swallow him in one bite!" The glasses boy said eagerly, clearly still naive on blood and death, thus not knowing how to hold back, directly issuing a heavy order.
Obediently, he forcefully reared up to elevate his position to chomp on the midair Xiaohei.
Of course, Xiaohei had a plan.
"Xiaohei! Strangle that foolish tortoise to death! Wait what?" And Xiaohei's tail extended, wrapped around the tortoise's neck, and leveraged it to throw himself over the tortoise. He then used the momentum of the rearing beast and his own strength to pull the tortoise backward.
With a heavy rumble, the tortoise had reared too high, and fell on its butt, and following that, landed completely on its back, now flailing its legs in the air.
The glasses boy thought he could see a very expressive sneer, and became furious.
"Xuanwu! Use your abilities! Full power! Kill him!" He shouted in fury.
With the order, the River Splitting Earth Tortoise's eyes glowed a deep orange...