109: See you again

During these three months, while Xu Yan was busy studying various types of knowledge and aggressively boosting his reputation with several papers, his spirit beasts were also growing alongside him.

Aside from Zhu Yan, who was still sleeping in the secret realm within Xu Yan's shadow, both Xiong Nian and Wuxiang had reached the limits of the General Rank.

Wuxiang, in particular, had gained immense benefits from its experience connecting to the World Destroyer Rank weapon authorization within the Eerie Secret Realm. After returning to the Third Academy, while purchasing resources based on Wuxiang's own calculations, Xu Yan also exchanged the three Monarch Rank materials from the S-rank contract for three types of Monarch Rank rare metals.

After absorbing these materials and undergoing self-adjustment, Wuxiang's bloodline level directly reached High-grade Monarch Rank.

This was one of the reasons why the Mechanical System attribute was so powerful. Compared to most other spirit beasts, possessing the Mechanical Evolution Innate Talent meant that as long as its processing power was sufficient and it could deduce its own structure, absorbing the corresponding materials based on that structure allowed it to smoothly complete its advancement.

However, although both spirit beasts' bloodlines had reached High-grade Monarch Rank, and their already extremely high comprehension had been further boosted by Xu Yan's Myriad Affinity Innate Talent, Wuxiang had previously stayed at the Ningcheng Mechanical Institute, and Xiong Nian had the protection of its clan. Neither had experienced life-or-death combat.

Even after contracting with Xu Yan, the fiercest battles they had fought were merely the few matches in the simulated environment during the freshman entrance test, and those were all one-sided crushing victories.

Compared to spirit beasts that grew up amidst life-or-death struggles, the growth environment for Wuxiang and Xiong Nian was too peaceful. This meant that even though they lacked nothing in terms of bloodline, comprehension, or resources, the speed of the two spirit beasts' strength growth was not particularly fast, only reaching the General Rank limit in the final few days of the third month.

Around this time, Lin Heng and the three others, who had been taken out by their respective tutors for practical training, successively completed their cultivation assignments and returned to the Third Academy.

After the previous gathering, the four were taken away by their respective tutors for intensive training. They had not met in person since, and even the spirit food they ordered was delivered directly via spirit beast courier.

Although they hadn't met in person, they chatted very enthusiastically in the group chat. Instead of becoming distant due to the long separation, their friendship deepened.

While they hadn't reached the level of close friends who could entrust their lives to each other, they were certainly good friends with some mutual affection.

Therefore, after Lin Heng and the others returned to the Third Academy and dealt with the matters that had accumulated during their absence, they agreed to find time for another gathering.

However, this time, they neither chose Xu Yan's dormitory area nor opted for a restaurant or hotel. Instead, they simply and directly chose an unoccupied training ground.

According to Lin Heng and the others, the main focus of their return gathering was to exchange notes on their respective gains and progress during this period. Such things were useless to discuss merely verbally and would inevitably require a spar or two.

In that case, it was better to just choose a training ground, ask their spirit beast stewards to set up a table nearby, and arrange some food and drinks. It wasn't too much trouble anyway.

On the agreed-upon day, Xu Yan arrived at the pre-booked training ground at the time they had set.

Almost simultaneously, the figures of the others appeared successively in the training ground.

However, compared to the previous gathering, the auras surrounding Lin Heng and the others had become much stronger and heavier. After a brief scan, Xu Yan realized that the current strength of all four of them had actually broken through to the Commander Rank.

Among the opponents from the entrance test, only Xu Yan, the champion, remained at the General Rank. Although he wasn't far from breaking through to the Commander Rank, he was still a step behind the others.

The moment they met, Lin Heng sensed that Xu Yan was still at the General Rank, and his eyes lit up; he immediately became excited.

Heaven knows that during the rare free time he managed to snatch while being maniacally trained by his tutor, he had to watch Xu Yan constantly show off in the group chat about how comfortable his life was at the Third Academy, how happy he was in class, how much he had boasted that day, and which teacher had expressed affection and admiration for him. Lin Heng's heart was filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred.

This emotion wasn't due to Xu Yan achieving success; it was because they were suffering under their respective tutors while Xu Yan's life was so comfortable. Just thinking about it made Lin Heng's mentality explode a little.

Now, the suffering they endured finally paid off, as they broke through to the Commander Rank ahead of Xu Yan. Naturally, they had to "retaliate" against Xu Yan for all the boasting he did in the group chat during that time.

Before the other three could react, Lin Heng rushed over to Xu Yan and immediately spoke:

"Xu Yan, let's fight again! I'm a Commander Rank Beast Tamer now. Let me show you the strength of a Commander Rank spirit beast, to avenge the way you relentlessly provoked me before!!!"

Xu Yan felt a bit helpless regarding Lin Heng's proposal.

Among the four tutors, the one Lin Heng followed was the strongest and had the most volatile temper. Because the final match was lost to Xu Yan from the Cultivation Department, when that tutor trained Lin Heng, they were as ruthless as possible, provided they didn't damage his foundation.

Therefore, Lin Heng had the hardest time during this period of hellish training. During chats, he would occasionally mention how miserable his training was, drawing agreement from the other three.

However, facing this situation, driven by a mischievous impulse, Xu Yan sometimes couldn't resist showing off how happy his life was.

And thus, naturally, Xu Yan became the "public enemy" of the group.

Now, the group had successfully returned from their respective tutors' training, and their strength surpassed that of Xu Yan, the "idler."

Didn't this mean the revenge for his previous boasting had arrived?