Chapter 454: Chapter 271: Tearless Sorrow of the Twelve_2

That day, Dad made a compromise. As long as Xu Ran dared to come looking for itself, it would let itself leave.

Although the time it had spent with Xu Ran wasn’t too long, Twelve was certain that it hadn’t chosen the wrong person. He would definitely come!

But when he would come, Twelve had no way of predicting.

It just hoped that Xu Ran would come sooner rather than later.

As Twelve was sighing, an excited voice approached rapidly from a distance.

“Chirp~” (Twelve sis! I’m here again!)

Twelve’s eyes quickly regained their sparkle, and it turned to look at another Velvet Sparrow waddling its way toward itself with a bit more of a smile in its eyes.

That was the Nightmare Beast King’s sixteenth daughter, the one among all its children with whom it had the best relationship.

After returning here, Xiaoxiao would run over every day to listen to it talk about what it saw and heard in the world of humans. This was also one of the few amusements it had to relieve its boredom throughout the day.

“Chirp~” (Xiaoxiao, come over, come over!)

Twelve scooted over to the side to make room for its younger sister, Sixteen.

A moment later, the two Velvet Sparrows lay side by side, basking their rotund bellies in the sunshine, and started chirping away in conversation.

“Chirp~” (Where did I leave off yesterday?)

“Chirp!” (Twelve sis! Yesterday, you left off at using Mind Induction to help the humans in the city find their dog! Then what? Did you find it?)

“Chirp… Chirp!” (I remember now… Stupid dog!)

Twelve’s eyes showed a recollective gleam, and after a moment, it couldn’t help but roll its eyes.

The dog it found kept barking at it non-stop, nearly giving it a fright!

“Chirp~” (Well, after that…)

Twelve organized its words then continued the story where it had left off yesterday, recounting its experiences in the human city.

Next to it, Xiaoxiao’s equally azure eyes began to reveal a touch of longing and yearning.

The cities of humans sounded so interesting.

It was just a pity that she didn’t have the same talent as Twelve sis and was much more timid. Sneaking out of the Core Area of Beast Field and into human cities was something she could only dream of.

The two Velvet Sparrows talked for quite some time before Xiaoxiao reluctantly got up from Twelve’s nest.

“Chirp~” (Twelve sis, I have to go for today’s training.)

The Nightmare Beast King was quite strict with its children, organizing daily training to hone their Talent Skills. Only Twelve, who was exceptionally gifted and had reached the pinnacle of proficiency at the Elite Stage early on, could avoid such group training.

“Chirp~” (Off you go, off you go~)

Twelve waved its little chubby wing at its sister, then suddenly seemed to think of something and asked in a lower voice.

“Chirp?” (What about the resources you were helping me scout for?)

At this, Xiaoxiao’s eyes flashed a human-like shade of helplessness.

“Chirp~” (No one has heard of the Dreamer’s Shadow.)

“Chirp… Chirp~” (As for the Dream Weaving Silkworm Silk… the ones that were in the treasury, Dad used them just recently, the day before you were brought back.)

Twelve’s azure eyes dimmed again, and it continued to lie there like a salted fish, waving its little fat wings at its sister to signal her to leave first.

After Sixteen had gone, Twelve couldn’t help but sigh deeply.

Damn it!

It had thought that by coming to the land of a richer Extraordinary Creature Group, it could start collecting some of the resources it needed for evolution.

It had never expected that of the three most important main materials, two were untraceable.

At this thought, Twelve’s face couldn’t help but take on a wanting-to-cry-but-having-no-tears expression.

If things kept going like this, when would it be able to evolve?

It wouldn’t be that by the time its peers completed their second evolution, it still hadn’t evolved, would it?

Surely not, surely not?

—————–

“The reception hours for Starfire Foster Care Shop have ended!”

As the sound of the bell rang out, Starfire Foster Care Shop’s showcase time during this Public Wash and Care Exhibition came to an end.

The last few minutes left no time to entertain a new customer, so Xu Ran simply introduced the store’s situation, taking advantage of the last opportunity to advertise for the shop.

From the audience’s reaction, the effect seemed quite good.

With the rapid assistance of the three little helpers, Xu Ran finished tidying up the scene and, after handing over to the next foster shop owner to take the stage, returned to the waiting seats with the other foster shop owners.

Upon his return, Xu Ran was greeted with a round of warm applause.

“Boss Xu is truly impressive,” said Liu Fengyun as he quickly came forward, his eyes filled with a hint of admiration. “When the Exquisite Flower King was brought to the stage, we all thought you wouldn’t be able to wash and groom it. Little did we expect, we had underestimated you.”

“Indeed.” Qi Cang laughed heartily. “Boss Xu, at such a young age to possess such grooming skills, it really puts me to shame.”

“I feel the same way,” Du Huayan chimed in with a smile, “Boss Xu’s grooming techniques are so magical, I hope there’s a chance to learn from you in the future.”

“Oh, not at all,” Xu Ran said with a blush, facing the numerous greetings laced with compliments and friendliness, “the grooming skills of everyone here has also given me quite a few insights. We’re just learning from each other after all.”

Seeing that Xu Ran, despite his young age and superior grooming skills, remained so humble, the other foster shop owners’ admiration deepened even more.

Taking advantage of the moment before the next foster shop owner started serving customers on stage, everyone engaged in a lively discussion about the two grooming cases Xu Ran had just handled.

Time flew by quickly in the relaxed atmosphere.

When the stores in the Monster Wooden Marketplace gradually turned off their lights and closed for the night and the bustling marketplace quieted down, the one-day Public Wash and Care Exhibition event also came to a close.

Amid the fervent voice of the host, the title of the most popular foster shop indisputably fell upon Starfire Foster Shop.

Although the Sleep Demon group had set the precedent and the subsequent foster shops also received wild Transcendent Beings and were rewarded with Transcendent Resources, none of those resources could compare in value with the Dream Weaving Silkworm Silk.

The benefit of winning the title of most popular foster shop was also quite clear for Starfire Foster.

This was more than just an honor in name; Liu Fengyun had already made arrangements with the local newspapers of Monster Wooden City to cover today’s events, and the most popular foster shop would also be mentioned in the reports.

It was evident how much this would help raise the fame of the business in the future.

As the event ended, the busy foster shop owners said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. Under the rush of stars, Xu Ran quickly returned to Starfire Foster Shop, from which he had been away for a day.

“It’s a good thing there aren’t any new residents in the shop,” Xu Ran said with a chuckle, “otherwise, I would’ve had to come back to feed them midway through.”

“Xi Lu~” (Who knows? Maybe there will be soon?)

Starfire whinnied with a glint of amusement in its eyes.

It had seen all the feedback from Xu Ran’s grooming process today.

The enthusiastic applause and cheers from the audience were enough to prove the popularity of Starfire Foster Shop, and if all went well, more and more customers would start arriving tomorrow.

So, there would likely be new residents soon.

“You’re right about that.” Hearing Starfire’s analysis, Xu Ran nodded with a smile and then casually opened the system panel.

[Main task 4: Branching Out

Task Description: Please assist the Host in successfully opening branches in four different Second Level Towns. A branch is considered successful if its fame reaches above 50%. This task is in stages, and the rewards will be distributed in stages.

Task Reward: 1 System Skill Upgrade Command, +600 System Upgrade Experience]

[Current Stage Task: Successfully open branches in two different Second Level Towns.

Task Progress: 1/2

Xieyun City (Completed)

Monster Wooden City (8.4/50)

Stage Task Reward: 3 System Clerks]

“Wow!” Xu Ran’s face revealed surprise as he caught sight of the fame, “It went up by six percent in one day?”

While Monster Wooden Marketplace is indeed the busiest part of Monster Wooden City, the day’s foot traffic couldn’t possibly amount to six percent of the entire city’s population.

Clearly, there was consideration of the wild Extraordinary Creature Group at play as well.

Moreso, it was inseparable from Xu Ran’s successful grooming of the Exquisite Flower King.

The fact that a Pet Beast impossible to groom with Mystical Wood Dew had been successfully groomed by the owner of Starfire Foster was quite the talking point.

“It seems there won’t be any shortage of customers knocking on our door tomorrow,” Xu Ran’s smile grew thicker on his face.

Tomorrow?

Cancan blinked, suddenly remembering something important.

“Cha!” (After we close for business tomorrow, let’s leave the city together!)

—————–

Overtime, just 4000 words for today… The chapter from yesterday has been released with some modifications.