It was already evening when Li Qingzhou returned home.
"Recently, there have been several casualties in our city due to people falling from buildings while sleepwalking. We remind everyone to make sure doors and windows are securely closed before going to bed..."
The city news was being broadcast on the TV.
"Qingzhou, you're back," Li's father said, sitting on the sofa watching TV. When he saw Li Qingzhou enter, he spoke up.
"Yeah," Li Qingzhou nodded.
Father Li stood up, turned off the TV, and walked towards Li Qingzhou.
"My son is back, come and have dinner," Li's mother said as she brought two bowls of food out from the kitchen.
At the dining table, the three of them sat down to eat.
"Did everything go smoothly with your beast control talent awakening today?" Father Li asked.
"I successfully awakened it, and I even contracted a pet beast today," Li Qingzhou replied while eating.
Father Li's eyes lit up with relief as he placed a piece of meat in Li Qingzhou's bowl. "I knew Qingzhou would be fine. Study hard, and you'll get into a good university in the future."
Mother Li smiled warmly. Father and Mother Li were ordinary people and didn't know much about beast control talent awakening. All they knew was that once you became a beast control master, it meant you had a bright future.
The three of them continued their meal in a harmonious atmosphere. Although Li Qingzhou was no longer the original Li Qingzhou, he could still feel the warmth and care from his parents, which he appreciated. He truly enjoyed the warmth of family life.
"I'm finished. I'll head back to my room now," Li Qingzhou said, placing his bowl down.
"Alright, rest well. You must be tired from school today," Mother Li replied with a smile.
In the past, Li Qingzhou would always go back to his room to study after dinner and keep at it until it was time for bed. His parents were already used to this routine.
Once back in his room, Li Qingzhou closed the door and summoned the Red Fox. He wanted to study its evolutionary path. Petting the Red Fox, he handed it a piece of meat, which it happily devoured.
As Li Qingzhou observed the Red Fox, its basic attributes appeared before his eyes:
**[Name: Red Fox (Mutated)]**
**[Attribute: Sand]**
**[Level: Black Iron, Level 7]**
**[Qualification: Bronze]**
**[Skills: Sand Escape, Fake Sleep]**
**[Weakness: Wood]**
**[Evolution Route: 1]**
**[Description: A fox living in the desert, red in color, and skilled at camouflage. Its strength increases in desert environments.]**
Li Qingzhou focused on the **[Evolution Route]** option, which immediately expanded.
**[Evolution Route: Red Sand Fox]**
**[Description: Physical abilities are greatly enhanced, and mastery over the Sand Escape skill is improved. Combat effectiveness is significantly boosted in sandy environments.]**
**[Evolution Materials: Sand Crystal (main), Sand Chrysalis (auxiliary), Desert Thorns (auxiliary)]**
After carefully reading the evolutionary information, Li Qingzhou noted that the Red Fox's natural evolution path wasn't particularly impressive. Its improvements were limited, and it could only evolve once. With its current bronze qualification, the fox's strength would max out at the silver stage after evolving.
There was also a row of black boxes under the **[Evolution Route]**, indicating that Li Qingzhou could customize an evolution path if he desired.
"What kind of evolutionary route should I plan for you?" Li Qingzhou mused as he glanced at the Red Fox, which was still happily munching on its meat, uninterested in the conversation.
When it came to fox-like creatures, Li Qingzhou's mind immediately went to the legendary Nine-Tailed Fox from myths. The Nine-Tailed Fox was a powerful mythical creature in Blue Star folklore, possessing vast magical powers and often appearing as a cunning and beautiful vixen in film, television, and games.
According to legend, the Nine-Tailed Fox was proficient in various attacks and transformation spells, with each tail containing immense power.
"It's a shame you're a male fox," Li Qingzhou sighed. "Otherwise, I would've named you 'Ali' and planned your evolution towards becoming a captivating vixen who could sway nations."
He briefly lamented this lost opportunity.
Another famous fox that came to mind was Kurama from a well-known anime series, a powerful nine-tailed demon fox. It was the strongest of all the tailed beasts, possessing overwhelming power and a sharp sense for detecting malice.
It seemed that the ultimate goal for any fox was to grow nine tails!
"I've decided that you'll evolve towards becoming a Nine-Tailed Fox and become the Fox King of this world," Li Qingzhou declared with a grin.
The Red Fox looked up in confusion, still gnawing on its meat, clearly not understanding what Li Qingzhou was saying.
"You've got one tail right now, so the next goal is for you to grow a second tail and evolve into a Two-Tailed Demon Fox," Li Qingzhou said, stroking the fox's fluffy tail.
With that thought, Li Qingzhou touched the first black box under the evolutionary route and entered his desired path:
**[Evolution Route: Two-Tailed Demon Fox]**
**[Description: A fox with two tails, possessing strong control over fire and explosive power, capable of defeating opponents of higher levels.]**
Drawing from his previous life's knowledge of fox evolution, Li Qingzhou outlined the abilities and characteristics of the Two-Tailed Demon Fox. After a moment, the description solidified, and the necessary evolution materials were displayed:
**[Evolution Materials: Smoldering Pearl (main), Fire Spirit Fruit (auxiliary), Lizard Tail (auxiliary)]**
The Two-Tailed Demon Fox's fire control would likely grant it a fire-based skill. Additionally, its increased explosive power suggested a significant boost in both speed and attack after the evolution.
However, upon seeing the required evolution materials, Li Qingzhou frowned. The main material, the Smoldering Pearl, was rare and priced at around 100,000 yuan, while the Fire Spirit Fruit and Lizard Tail were somewhat cheaper, totaling about 50,000 yuan.
In short, evolving the Red Fox into a Two-Tailed Demon Fox would cost him 150,000 yuan.
But his family was just an ordinary one. There was no way they had that much extra money to buy pet evolution materials.
Although he could technically venture into the wild to collect the materials, the areas where these items could be found were also home to powerful, dangerous beasts. His current strength wasn't nearly enough to safely explore such places.
"I never expected that even in a world of beast control, I'd still be so broke," Li Qingzhou sighed, feeling a bit helpless.
The Red Fox, meanwhile, chirped as if to say it wasn't to blame, and that evolving wasn't all that important.
Li Qingzhou shifted his focus to analyzing the Red Fox's skills:
**[Sand Escape]:** Summons and controls sand and gravel.
This versatile skill could be used to condense gravel into weapons for attack or form a shield for defense. When used wisely, its potential was enormous.
**[Fake Sleep]:** Puts enemies into a deep sleep, causing them to lose consciousness; if used on oneself, it rapidly restores physical energy during sleep.
Mental control skills were rare and highly valuable. Very few beasts had such abilities in this world. This made Fake Sleep an excellent skill, capable of both controlling enemies and rejuvenating the user.
The only downside was that it only induced sleep in enemies. If it could manipulate an enemy's mind more broadly, it would be a truly formidable skill.