Unlike the peaceful days at the Starfire Foster Care Shop, fierce battles were unfolding outside of Qingzhou City where Xu Ran resided.
Beast Masters had the power to command pet beasts in battle, but not all transcendent beings were willing to follow the Beast Master's instructions and live in harmony with humans.
Especially when these high-level transcendent beings had intelligence not much less than that of humans.
These transcendent beings, hostile to humans, lurked outside of human cities and often launched group attacks on humans.
To them, the flesh and blood of Beast Masters provided great aid to increasing their strength, and humans were nothing more than their food.
However, humans could not just sit and wait for death, and countless powerful Beast Masters stood guard at the edges of the cities, protecting their cities.
Many of them did not uphold any noble purpose of guarding humanity, but were merely attracted by the high prices the Beast Master Association in the city offered for transcendent creature materials.
Liu Gu was one such Beast Master.
"Retreat!"
With a shout from another man not far away, Liu Gu signaled his pet beast, the Wind Lion Dog which was fighting with the transcendent beings, to come back.
Around the battle front, the surging transcendent beings were already showing signs of failure.
They had once again defended Qingzhou City.
Although they risked their lives in battle to obtain transcendent creature materials to make money, each time Liu Gu saw the retreating transcendent beings, he could not help feeling a touch of pride.
In defending the city, he also played a part.
A large dog, as tall as a person, emerged next to Liu Gu.
It was covered with long fur, and its streamlined body displayed the robustness of transcendent beings perfectly. Although it was a dog type pet beast, the large ring of fur around its neck made it look like a lion.
At this moment, after bathing in the blood of its foes and with the opponent's broken corpse in its mouth, it looked particularly mighty and fierce.
That was Liu Gu's trusted partner, an elite-stage Wind attribute pet beast, the Wind Lion Dog.
The Wind Lion Dog threw down the corpse of the transcendent being it was carrying in its mouth, and let out an excited howl.
"Roar Woof!"
It then excitedly pounced on its Beast Master, rubbing itself against Liu Gu here and there, and started licking Liu Gu's face with its bloody tongue.
Instantly, the brave pet beast on the battlefield turned into a clingy pet dog.
Although, its size was a bit too big.
"That's enough!" With an expressionless face, Liu Gu wiped the drool off his face and pushed the head of the Wind Lion Dog away.
"Hahaha Liu Gu, you and your Wind Lion Dog have a really good relationship!" A few companions nearby, with their pet beasts accompanying them, laughed and approached.
"Let's start counting our gains! This time we have gathered quite a lot. After selling them, we can rest for two days." The leading man among them gave a hearty laugh.
"Okay, Team Zhang!"
The rest of them responded, and methodically started to take away the valuable materials from the killed transcendent beings, while discarding the rest.
They all belonged to the same hunting squad.
Beast Masters were relatively vulnerable, and in order to better ensure their own safety on the battlefield, it was common for them to team up and fight together.
After they finished counting, they chatted and laughed as they headed towards the city.
"Liu Gu, adding the gains from this time, you should have saved enough money, right?" One companion asked with a smile.
"Yes!" Liu Gu couldn't help but look expectant.
After exchanging the materials for money at the Association's window, they divided the money among themselves as per their old rules, agreed on the time for their next joint action, and then said goodbye to each other.
On the way back, Liu Gu patted the big head of his old buddy, "We have saved enough money now. I will contract a new pet beast to accompany you!"
"Roar Woof!"
The Wind Lion Dog roared in excitement, seeming to look forward to it as well.
"You have been working hard during this time." Liu Gu stroked the long fur of the Wind Lion Dog, "Do you have any wishes? Like any good food you want to eat? I'll buy it for you!"
Upon hearing the Beast Master's words, the Wind Lion Dog got excited.
Its big eyes glowed with thoughtfulness, and it soon made a serious decision.
"Roar Woof!"
"You want to take a bath?" Liu Gu looked at the bloody stains on the Wind Lion Dog, "That's easy, I'll just spray you with a water gun when we get back."
The Wind Lion Dog appeared displeased and shook its head.
The Beast Master once tried to bathe it with a water gun and it did not feel good, plus, it wasn't clean enough.
"Woof!"
"You want to go to a Foster Shop for a pet beast cleaning and caring?" Liu Gu rolled his eyes, "That's an overrated service. Listen to me, I'll give you an extra portion of beef tonight, it'll make you full!"
"Woof, woof!"
The Wind Lion Dog shook its head, expressing a firm decision.
It didn't care, it wanted to go for a cleaning and caring session!
"Why is that?" Liu Gu didn't understand.
"Woof, woof, woof..."
The Wind Lion Dog howled for a while until Liu Gu understood.
Earlier, a new neighbor had moved in nearby.
The neighbor also has a dog type pet beast. Both his Wind Lion Dog and their pet beast are males. The neighbor takes care of it as a pet, dressing it up nicely every day.
Normally that wouldn't matter, but his Wind Lion Dog had an admirer in the neighborhood.
However, his admirer fell for the neighbor's pet because it looked better.
It's a sad story.
When Liu Gu found out about it, he teased his Wind Lion Dog for several days.
Now, the Wind Lion Dog was trying to take this opportunity to win back its love.
"Old buddy, I can't believe you are such an obedient mutt," Liu Gu sighed heavily, patting the Wind Lion Dog's large head in a 'good for nothing' way, "I'll fulfill your wish! Let's go for a cleaning and caring session!"
"If I remember correctly, there's a Foster Shop nearby our home!"
"Woof!"
The Wind Lion Dog nodded its head excitedly.
-----------------
"Ah~"
Leaning on his hand behind the counter, Xu Ran sighed, "Why are there still no customers?"
"Meow~"
The kitten next to him copied his sigh, even though it had no idea why Xu Ran sighed.
Just as Xu Ran was feeling dejected, a voice came from outside the door.
"Boss! I wonder..." a burly man led a pet beast even bigger than him into the shop, halting his sentence when he saw Xu Ran, "Where's your boss?"
"I'm the boss of this shop." Xu Ran straightened up a bit, "But at present, our shop only provides the washing and caring service."
"That's exactly why I'm here!" the burly man excitedly slapped on the counter, "Make my pet beast clean, and if possible, let it be the best-looking dog in the whole neighborhood!"
"Woof!"
The Wind Lion Dog held its head up high.
"No problem." Xu Ran nodded, equally excited in his heart.
This pet beast obviously met the criteria for gaining pleasure value, a score of over a thousand was in sight.
And he could also try out his Plucking Fur skill.
He turned his gaze toward the Wind Lion Dog, activating the system-installed Identification function.
[Race name: Wind Lion Dog
Attribute: Wind element
Growth step: Elite Stage
Body type: Medium
Washing and Protection requirement: ★★★★☆
Evaluation: It's rare to see a pet beast this dirty. Host, do put your magical hands to work and make this misguided Wind Lion Dog happy!]
This system is really flippant.