Chapter 26: Chapter 26 Team Selection

After coming home, Mom emerged from the bedroom, “Have you had dinner? I left some dishes for you in the fridge.”

“Not yet.” Chen Xing glanced at his sister’s tightly closed room. “Where’s Sister? Hasn’t she come back today?”

“Her teacher called, your sister has been in the Ze City Secret Realm these past few days, and they told us not to worry, saying that the teachers are accompanying them,” said Liu Yuzhen, bustling about in the kitchen.

After dinner, and feeding Taotie its pet food, Chen Xing returned to his room and began searching online for information about the Ze City Secret Realm.

The Ze City Secret Realm has been in existence for three hundred years, having a history of two hundred years before the Great Xia’s reforms.

The interior of the Ze City Secret Realm isn’t large; it’s an ancient city that was submerged by floodwaters.

Many of the city’s buildings had been soaked in water for a long time throughout the years, damaging their foundations, combined with the destruction caused by the numerous Beast Tamers who explored and developed the secret realm over the centuries, leading to the collapse of many houses within it.

In the last few decades, Jincheng has been dedicated to the secret realm’s sustainable development, repairing and reconstructing many buildings and establishing 8 safety supply points and 4 medical points inside the realm.

The Ze City Secret Realm also became Jincheng’s most comfortable adventure realm, attracting large numbers of Beast Tamers from other places every year.

There are 8 species of wild beasts in the realm.

N18 Red Silkfish, N20 Thorn Crownfish, N19 Star-patterned Loach, N31 Reaper Crab, N24 White Fluff Spotted Spider, N19 Earth Doll, N20 Giant-Belly Prawn, N35 Azure Conch.

‘N’ is the capitalized first letter of ‘Energy Level,’ and the number that follows is the Energy Level Limit for that species. For example, Taotie is an N38 Salty Bay Crocodile.

Beyond these things, Chen Xing also saw some strange stuff.

“Fisherman’s Evening Pavilion launches spicy stir-fried Azure Conch meat, limited to 888 servings.”

“Giant-Belly Prawn barbecue, limited time 20% off.”

“Offering a 99% new Earth Doll figurine for transfer, DM if interested.”

“For sale, high-quality Reaper Crab hatchlings, just half a month old, with clear back patterns and large scythes, father a 31 full Energy Level robust male crab, mother has evolved once, at Energy Level 43 Red-faced Rakshasa Crab, with certificate, those in the know, come forth!”

All these are wild beasts as well, but why don’t they seem so scary once they’re served on the dining table…

“Oh!”

I really want to eat!

Taotie, who had sneakily crawled up beside him, drooled over the food pictures on the phone.

Chen Xing chuckled lightly, “When you grow up some more, I’ll take you to a buffet.”

“What’s a buffet?” Taotie cocked its head.

“It’s a feast where some people voluntarily help you eat your fill.”

Are there really people as kind as the master?

Taotie’s nostrils flared with disbelief.

Patting the surprised Taotie, Chen Xing chuckled softly, “When you become powerful, everything around you will be kind.”

Taotie struggled to understand such complex matters; it only knew that once it grew up, it could eat lots and lots of things.

Embracing its dreams, Taotie lay beside Chen Xing and peacefully closed its eyes. After a while, intermittent whimpering sounds came from its side.

Chen Xing turned his head. Taotie’s eyes were tightly shut, its mouth sealed shut, the whimpering coming from its nostrils, and its two front claws clutching the sheets tightly, unaware of what it was dreaming about.

Is this guy now falling asleep so quickly?

The insomniac Chen Xing, watching Taotie which had such good sleep quality, couldn’t help but pull his hand out from under the blankets.

“Slap!” A palm landed softly on its belly through the blanket.

Taotie opened its eyes, filled with bewilderment in their purity.

“Having a nightmare? There, there, we’re not scared, are we?” Chen Xing stroked its head.

“Whimper.” Taotie nuzzled its head against Chen Xing’s shoulder, burrowing forcefully into his embrace.

…

“Brother Chen, I heard you’re going to join the school team?” Zou Minghan asked Chen Xing.

“`

“???” Chen Xing was baffled, how could I not know about this?

“I don’t know, nope.” Chen Xing continued reading his book.

Zou Minghan looked enviously at the Taotie lying on the ground next to them. Taotie had grown too large to fit on the desk by now, sprawling across it would fill up two tables.

Its size was quite exaggerated, he felt that his own Beast Taming body was probably only half the length of Chen Xing’s Beast Taming.

“I heard that you might join the school team?” Wang Qiming from the back row asked in surprise.

Chen Xing frowned, “Who said that?”

“It’s the rumor going around. They discussed it in the class group chat last night, but you didn’t say anything, so you might not have seen it.”

Chen Xing thought about it, he had gone to the reservoir area last night and was quite busy. After returning in the evening, he warmed up pet food for Taotie, browsed the forum for a while on his bed, and then went to sleep.

“That’s not the case. School just started for me as a freshman, my strength is nowhere near enough to qualify for the school team.”

“The legendary school team! I heard it’s filled with the top student masters from our school, legendary figures.” Zou Minghan said.

Chen Xing shook his head.

In Great Xia today, the competitive spirit is strong, and various competitions and challenges are constantly emerging.

For instance, the Rushing Rams Challenge that he participated in a while ago was a product of this environment.

And as the future of a country, the student population was receiving a lot of attention, with many expectations placed upon them.

Especially since there’s the threat of the Exotic Region as a great enemy, the atmosphere from top to bottom simply couldn’t be weak.

Under various factors, the High School Cup came into being. The High School Cup is divided into two groups, the college group and the high school group.

Even though the high school group events don’t attract as much attention as the college ones, their value and interest are also not low.

On top of that, in addition to the High School Cup, other regional competitions were born.

Therefore, any school with the means would form a school team, and Azure Dragon High School was no exception.

The location of Azure Dragon High’s school team was behind the three large cafeterias, in that open space enclosed by walls. Sometimes you could hear the sound of combat from inside when going to have a meal.

It’s said that the school team is comprised of senior and junior students from the second and third year. A first-year freshman like himself had no place in the school team.

During the lunch break, Lu Junxiang invited Chen Xing to his office to talk about the school team.

“What, the school is really selecting people to join the school team?”

Lu Junxiang mentioned, “This news came out yesterday afternoon from the headmaster. You left early, so you missed the announcement.”

Actually, Lu Junxiang didn’t quite understand the senior school officials’ decision, thinking it was too early.

It’s only the first year of high school; one should be focusing on learning and cultivating their Beast Taming skills. It wouldn’t be late to join the school team in the second year. In fact, in the five years since the school team was established, almost all the members who joined were in their third year.

After all, this involved real competitions, where one had to fight for real on the stage.

Potential? Competitions don’t look at potential; they look at strength!

If you don’t have the strength, just wait your turn honestly, participating in the next round won’t grant you any special treatment because of your age.

So even the reserve members of the school team recruited in previous years were mostly third-year students. The two exceptions that were second-year students had nearly reached that level, and the school intended to cultivate their competition experience, which is why they were included as reserves.

But now, recruiting a first-year student directly into the school team… what for?

Although he didn’t understand, he didn’t interfere; after all, there were additional resources allocated to the school team. If his student could be selected, receiving extra resources every week, he naturally wouldn’t object.

“The school is planning to hold a selection in the gym this Saturday. You should prepare yourself. Apart from you, there are three other students from your year also participating in the selection. It’s best to perform at your fullest to get selected by the school team. The school team members receive extra resource subsidies every week; this isn’t from our school, it’s directly from the New District Education Department,” Lu Junxiang reminded Chen Xing kindly.

Extra resource aid?

Chen Xing’s eyes lit up upon hearing this.

The four thousand-plus in his bag had just started to warm up, and now there came another sum of money!

He admitted he was somewhat tempted. After all these years, he had come to deeply realize the importance of money. Money isn’t everything, but without money, you can’t do anything.

He, for one, was scared of being poor.