As a whole night had passed and my sister had not yet returned home.
While Chen Xing was worried at heart, he did not rashly take action, mainly because he was quite aware of his current strength. It was best for him not to cause any trouble...
Not to mention others, just the residents who had been running towards the north of the city that he had seen on the street yesterday; their Beast Taming was probably at least above Energy Level 30.
Even without taking potions, just by eating ordinary beast meat and growing normally, a Beast Tamer could mature over ten or twenty years, naturally increasing their Energy Level significantly.
After a night of accumulation, Taotie's body length had grown to 150.5 cm, an increase of 9.3 cm compared to yesterday, while the Energy Level reached 7.01, an increase of 0.33.
As the Energy Level increased, although the growth of its size maintained the original speed, it had gradually slowed down since breaking through to Energy Level 5.
However, this speed was still enough for now; it would definitely be possible to break through to Energy Level 10 in a month.
After arriving at school and finishing morning self-study, Chen Xing left the classroom and went straight to the principal's office.
The door to the principal's office was ajar, and judging from the sound of conversation inside, the principal had already arrived. It was indeed true, as he had heard, that our school's principal always arrived very early.
Hearing footsteps outside, the conversation inside stopped.
Chen Xing knocked on the door, and a calm and even voice came from inside, "Come in."
Chen Xing gently pushed open the door, and standing in front of the principal was the grade director.
The grade director nodded kindly at Chen Xing before leaving the office, closing the door behind him.
Xue Jinbao asked with a smile, "Chen, do you have any difficulties that you need assistance with?"
"Principal Xue, I just wanted to ask you about something," Chen Xing said shyly.
"What's the matter, please tell me."
"Do you know about the Secret Realm that just appeared to the north? Is that Secret Realm dangerous?"
"Hahaha, you want to go to the Secret Realm?" Xue Jinbao laughed, "This morning, an internal notification was just issued; you guys will probably see it in the news tomorrow. This Secret Realm has currently been named Nightmare Swamp 03. Its spatial stability is at a low Energy Level, and the Beast Taming Level must not exceed Energy Level 60. According to the degree of danger of the realm, it is relatively low, but for you guys right now, it's still very dangerous."
"If you want to visit the Secret Realm, you might wait another year. When you're in the second year of senior high, the school will organize a Secret Realm exploration class, and then you can go to the Ze City Secret Realm in Guanghu District. The Ze City Secret Realm has been developed for more than three hundred years, and the entire realm has been very well trained, especially since your Beast Taming is amphibious, the Ze City Secret Realm is most suited for your Beast Tamer!"
Chen Xing knew the principal might have misunderstood his intention, thinking he wanted to go to the Secret Realm.
"It's not that I want to go, but I have a friend."
Xue Jinbao realized, "I see, you have a 'friend' who wants to go."
Seeing the principal's expression, Chen Xing felt somewhat helpless, aware that the principal might have misunderstood something, but it was better to maintain the misunderstanding. He subconsciously felt that his sister's matter should be kept as quiet as possible.
From the principal, he learned some early news: although the Secret Realm had risks, fortunately, it was not an extremely perilous place of no return.
Chi Yu's Energy Level had already reached 40, so he believed his sister would have a sense of measure.
When he went to the school cafeteria at noon to feed Taotie, there were always students from other classes peeking at Taotie, sometimes letting out a gasp or two.
Even the auntie in charge of meal tickets in the cafeteria commented that Chen Xing's Beast Taming was getting a good deal! Not only could it eat, but it also grew fast!
Although Taotie had one pet meal every night, during the free lunch provided by the state at noon it still ate with relish, never wasting any bit of food.
In the afternoon, Chen Xing spent his time in class searching for a suitable area to play hide and seek.
By now, Taotie's Energy Level had reached 7.01.
According to the rules, the hide and seek range needed to be within a circle of 1.542 square kilometers, and the area of the Water Element environment within this zone had to account for no less than 30%, or 0.462 square kilometers, approximately the size of six and a half football fields.
Such a large area had to contain water, and considering the ease of finding Taotie himself, it was best if the water was no deeper than one meter.
The more Chen Xing calculated, the more daunting it seemed; there weren't many places that met the criteria!
Swimming pools definitely didn't meet the standards, and some large water amusement parks might, beyond that, there were the lake parks in the city, but the water in the parks would certainly not be shallow... at least not convenient for him to swim down and find Taotie.
If he went into the water directly, it probably wouldn't take long for the park's staff to fish him out.
Suddenly, Chen Xing came across a piece of information and hesitated. If this location could also be assessed as a Water Element environment... He opened the map and carefully compared it online, formulating a plan in his mind.
However, this would require a considerable amount of time, and Chen Xing did not want to delay the growth progress of his Beast Taming just to expedite the upgrade of his Proficiency Level.
After the first afternoon class, Chen Xing went to the office to ask his homeroom teacher for a half-day leave. Lu Junxiang, having been reminded by the grade director, readily granted the leave. Leaving the school, Chen Xing headed straight to the suburban fish ponds in a taxi.
During the ride, he began to contact the other party, who hesitated upon hearing Chen Xing's request.
After much deliberation, the other party finally agreed to the favor, considering the "element" they had in common.
Half an hour later, he arrived at his destination, a large pond undergoing desilting at the edge of the new district in Jincheng's suburbs. The bottom of the pond was piled with thick mud, surrounded by some shrubs, but not many. Near the large pond was a reservoir, less than four hundred meters from the pond to the reservoir in a straight line. If Taotie could enter the reservoir, it would surely be impossible to find.
But it had short legs and couldn't have gone that far in one minute.
Having chosen a good position, right by the pond near the reservoir, Chen Xing saw that the hide-and-seek game indeed lit up as activate-able.
This pond, half-muddy and half-dry, really counted as a water environment!
Chen Xing summoned Taotie, "Let's continue playing the hide-and-seek game from last time."
Taotie lifted its head in confusion, but it understood it was time to play. After observing the unfamiliar surroundings and smelling the unique fishy odor of the mud pond, it bellowed to signal the start of the game.
It spun around in place, its sensitive nose distinguishing the thick moisture in the air.
Turning its head toward the east, where the reservoir was located, it instinctively moved towards the area with more water vapor. Thus, it began crawling towards the reservoir on its four short limbs. Taotie had a vague concept of time and didn't know how long a minute was, but it knew it was being followed by the sound of footsteps as it moved.
"Oh~" Taotie sprawled its legs and bolted, but it hadn't run a few steps before it was caught.
"Stop running, stop running, you've lost this round," Chen Xing caught up from behind, somewhat amused and exasperated.
It was the first time he had seen Taotie run like that.
Taotie bellowed softly and rolled its eyes.
Back at the starting point, Chen Xing continued the game.
This time, Taotie bolted right from the start, but it overestimated its stamina. Dragging its body across the land to run was too slow, so it was caught about thirty meters away from the reservoir.
"Let's go again!"
Taotie was unresigned.
Chen Xing decided it was time to properly deal with this stubborn creature.
After being caught five times in succession, Taotie finally learned to adapt.
This time, it didn't run towards the reservoir, seeming to realize it could never make it there. Cleverly, it turned and hid in the mud of the pond.
Its body sank into the mud, its exposed edges seamlessly blending with the surroundings, but it forgot to erase its tracks, which perfectly exposed it.
After being easily found once again, Taotie felt this game was not fun at all.
"Let's play a little longer today, and I'll give you an extra meal tonight, okay?" Chen Xing tempted it with promises.
Taotie: ԅ(✧_✧ԅ)!
Is that true or false?
"Really, I'm not lying to you, silly croc."
Taotie: Deal! Ah, who's to refuse when the master is so childish, I might as well humor you.
The landlord, who had rented out the fishpond for five hours, initially speculated whether there was some treasure in his pond, so he stood on the ridge with his hands in his pockets, observing.
Twenty minutes later, the fishpond landlord frowned, wondering if he had been overthinking it. Maybe this really was a young man full of childlike wonder.
But surely there wouldn't be someone so bored in this world, right?
Half an hour later, the fishpond landlord was finally convinced that there indeed were people this bored in the world!
Oh well, he was getting paid anyway, and as long as the young man was happy, that was all that mattered.
After five hours straight, as the sky began to darken, Chen Xing finally managed to accumulate the full one hundred points for the Water Concealment passive skill.
Taotie advanced quickly, starting with hiding in the mudpond, then learning to clean up its traces, and finally realizing that the more it tried to cover its tracks, the more evident they became. Chen Xing observed its quick learning and improvement.
Toward the end, Taotie had taught itself to crawl through the mire, using its tail to erase its tracks behind it. Although it couldn't clear them completely, its actions were quite convincing...
Once the Proficiency Level reached one hundred points,
The text for the Passive Skill Water Concealment became blurry; moments later, the text cleared and changed from Water Concealment to [Water Mimicry · Calmness].
Passive Skill: [Water Mimicry · Calmness] When it is near a water body and stationary, its body patterns and color will mimic the surrounding environment. This reduces its presence, lowers life signs, provides immunity to detection skills below advanced level, and reduces damage from Water Element Skills.
Looking at the evolved passive skill effect, Chen Xing suddenly felt neither back pain nor fatigue, finding all the effort and the three thousand yuan he had spent for rent for the day entirely worthwhile.
Water Mimicry · Calmness was clearly a powered-up version of its previous passive.
Not only could it hide effectively, but it could also protect him while doing so.