After returning to her room, the Fire-Toothed Dog was, as usual, watching the event channel for Hanggang.
Qiao Sang, on the other hand, was attending an online class about Contract Beast Spiritual Engravers while sketching patterns on the face of her Little Treasure Ghost using a special brush meant for engravers.
She wasn't just idly trying to improve her skills during her vacation; she genuinely wanted to contribute to the Fire-Toothed Dog's progress in condensing energy balls. After some time of training, she had noticed some issues with how the dog was practicing the Martian Rain skill.
Even though she had invested points to enhance it, the dog's energy was far from enough to unleash such a high-level skill. While it seemed that the first step of condensing energy balls was moving along quickly, the explosions that might be formed in the sky wouldn't be Martian Rain but rather a scattered drizzle—one of those light drizzles that barely wet anything.
There were three solutions to the problem.
The first was Evolution. The truth was, practicing Martian Rain was more of an experiment than an urgency. Even if she continued for over a month until the Fire-Toothed Dog evolved into a Firehound, it wouldn't be a waste of time. The worry was that even if it did evolve, the energy would still be insufficient, as most mid-level beasts learning high-level skills were stated in textbooks.
The second was Items. The reason this was dismissed was simple: she didn't have the money, at least not for now.
Lastly, there was the engraving of energy patterns. This was mainly a technical task, and while some materials were expensive, they were quite affordable compared to items. The necessary materials for the simpler patterns could all be bought online within Qiao Sang's current budget.
Engraving the patterns tested one's craftsmanship as every stroke needed to be fluid. On top of not making mistakes with the patterns, the mental energy infused with every single stroke had to be uniform. If the mental energy was inconsistent, it would lead to an imbalance in the energy structure of the patterns, ultimately resulting in failure.
Simply put, using mental energy involved activating the Contract Beast Library within her Brain Domain. Normally, Beast Masters felt no strain using the Codex to summon their beasts, but when having to consistently activate the Codex while engraving patterns, it would definitely feel exhausting.
Qiao Sang had learned to engrave energy patterns for three days and had not yet faced any struggles. The release of a beast's skills mainly relied on its inner energy, while the energy patterns she was studying now were meant to absorb external power when the skill was unleashed.
She had specifically purchased a month's worth of online courses about these patterns, with the Little Treasure Ghost as her experimental subject. It wasn't that she didn’t want to practice on the Fire-Toothed Dog, but it disliked water and was slow when it came time to bathe. Given the dog's aversion to water, trying to practice these patterns on it would probably take ages.
The Little Treasure Ghost didn’t have those worries. On the contrary, during the three days of engraving, it had been quite proactive, bringing out the materials every time.
"It's done; you can try it now," Qiao Sang said, setting down her brush.
"Xun~"
The Little Treasure Ghost stretched its short claws upward, signaling that it wasn’t in a rush. It picked up a small mirror that had been prepared earlier and began to preen its reflection, making all sorts of silly faces in the process.
Qiao Sang shook her head helplessly. If someone unaware of the situation had witnessed this scene, they would have thought she was drawing a ghost face instead of a spiritual pattern.
"Xun~"
The Little Treasure Ghost put down the mirror and called out happily, seemingly very proud of its handiwork on its face.
In the next moment, a purple glow appeared around it but quickly vanished.
"Xun."
It spread its tiny hands and shook its head, signaling that it didn’t work.
Another failure.
Although Qiao Sang braced herself for this result, a hint of disappointment still crept in.
“Knock knock.” Just as she was about to wash the pattern off the Little Treasure Ghost's face, a knock came from the door.
"Xun~"
The Little Treasure Ghost floated over eagerly to open the door.
“A Sang, why are you making ghost faces on the Little Treasure Ghost?” Ye Ranran exclaimed in surprise as she saw the little creature at the door.
"Xun~"
The Little Treasure Ghost beamed widely at this remark and floated to the table to grab its mirror again.
Qiao Sang was left speechless.
“This is powdered Clear Frost Coral, isn’t it?” she asked, choosing to ignore Ye Ranran's earlier comment as she glanced at the bowl in her hands.
“Yup, I just made some and brought you a bowl," Ye Ranran replied, entering the room and placing the bowl on the table.
Qiao Sang took a sip; it was slightly sweet.
"What’s up with Third Uncle? Why can’t he get two people together to form a team for the competition?” Qiao Sang inquired.
She had wanted to ask this for a while, but it seemed inappropriate to bring it up in front of her uncle at the dinner table, fearing it might hurt his feelings.
“What do you mean, he can't get people together? Isn't it just you and me?” Ye Ranran teasingly replied.
Qiao Sang sighed in exasperation.
“I’m not joking, he had trouble because the people he had originally lined up wanted overlapping prizes, and other folks had also selected the same positions in the beast competition,” Ye Ranran explained. “This marathon relay event is split into sea, land, and air segments, with two beasts per segment. None of Third Uncle’s friends have flying beasts for the relay in the air segment, but your Little Treasure Ghost can barely count as a possible candidate for that segment.”
So it wasn't that he lacked connections or was being excluded…
“By the way, you should take Fire-Toothed Dog out to practice for a few days. The land segment is the first one, and Fire-Toothed Dog is expected to be the second leg of the race. Third Uncle mainly wants to secure a good finish with the Howling Marsh Crocodile,” Ye Ranran continued.
“But the water segment is the second leg, and I worry that if you lag too far behind, it might put pressure on the Howling Marsh Crocodile. Lately, I don’t know what’s up, but it keeps getting startled and seems to lack strong mental resilience,” Ye Ranran added.
The pressure was on the Fire-Toothed Dog's side.
Qiao Sang turned to look at the Fire-Toothed Dog, which was currently focused on the sports channel, and felt there wouldn’t be much of a problem.
“Is Little Treasure Ghost the last leg?” Qiao Sang asked.
Ye Ranran nodded. “Yes, it is in the final leg. Don’t worry; we’re not really expecting to win as a team. Your little one doesn’t even have to run if it doesn’t feel like it.”
Qiao Sang glanced at her Little Treasure Ghost, still busy making silly faces in front of the mirror.
Well, if it didn’t need to run, then she could rest easy…
In the following days, the Fire-Toothed Dog’s schedule became even more packed.
Mornings were filled with skill release training, then half a bottle of F-level energy recovery solution for practicing energy ball condensation. Afternoons repeated the morning routine. However, after finishing the F-level recovery solution, it wouldn't push to exhaustion over the energy ball practice. Instead, it would leave time for a few laps around Liu Ganxi.
By evening, after drinking some milk to recover, it would also practice condensing energy balls again.
It was almost more intense than when Qiao Sang had worked hard to get into Holy Water Middle School!
With her own Contract Beast working so hard, Qiao Sang was influenced too. Instead of relaxing during her vacation, she found herself reading up on knowledge and practicing the spiritual patterns on her Little Treasure Ghost's face.
July 24th.
Clear skies.
The day of the Qitang Town Marathon Relay.
(End of Chapter)