Relinquish the throne

Guan Yue did not look at the person who had arrived; she was originally looking at the forms. When she raised her eyes and discovered that the person handing her the form was Shui Lingyu, she immediately panicked.

"Young Master Shui, ah no, no, I—"

"The rules of the Beast Association, the attitude towards Beastmasters participating in the assessment—tell me, which part of this have you done well? If I weren't here today, and if I also needed to protect the privacy of my pet beast, wouldn't everyone be bullied by you!"

Shui Lingyu raised an eyebrow, his tone calm but revealing a cold chill.

He did not want to hear any more of Guan Yue's superfluous nonsense, so he directly took his and Gu Xiaoyue's information forms and placed them next to Wang Jingchuan.

Wang Jingchuan was stunned; Young Master Shui was actually doing manual labor himself.

"Tell Qin Shao that I do not want to see this person ever again!"

Wang Jingchuan did not dare to plead for Guan Yue, so he had to nod in agreement, taking the opportunity to signal Guan Yue with his eyes.

Guan Yue understood and turned to Gu Xiaoyue, lowering her head and acting submissive to plead for herself: "Miss Gu, please plead with Young Master Shui for me. I really don't want to lose this job."

Gu Xiaoyue gave a speechless sneer and went straight to the waiting area.

Guan Yue continued to beg with teary eyes, "Miss Gu, I beg you, please!"

A female Beastmaster nearby who was preparing for the assessment couldn't help but speak up: "It's just a small matter, why do you have to be so unforgiving?"

Gu Xiaoyue didn't speak, but Chu Li jumped out, "Show me your trump card, your secret weapon!"

"We are talking about this staff member right now, why are you bringing up trump cards?"

The woman was a bit angry, crossing her arms over her chest and staring at Chu Li vigilantly.

"What she is doing right now is forcing our Xiao Yue to reveal her trump cards! Not to mention how many times she has used her position for personal vendettas in the past, just for today's incident alone, firing her is getting off lightly!"

Chu Li specifically emphasized "our," simultaneously retorting to the meddlesome woman and asserting his dominance.

The female Beastmaster who wanted to stand up for Guan Yue stopped talking and sat back in the waiting area, feeling resentful.

Seeing that her pleas were met with indifference, Guan Yue pointed at Gu Xiaoyue's nose: "Cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents. Do you really have to push me to the brink?"

"Isn't this your own doing? And you're blaming me? If it weren't for Qin Shao's intercession, I would have kicked you out of the Beastmaster Association last time!"

Gu Xiaoyue said this without looking sideways. Who told Guan Yue to kick the iron plate of Shui Lingyu just to embarrass her?

Shui Lingyu narrowed his eyes and asked: "She has used her position for personal vendettas against Junior Sister Gu before?"

Subsequently, the corner of his eye swept over to Chu Li, "If anyone can bully Junior Sister Gu, then perhaps someone's position as a protector should be abdicated to someone more worthy."

"You—" Chu Li was left speechless, knowing that this guy surnamed Shui had ill intentions towards Xiao Yue!

However, he hadn't really done anything before; Xiao Yue had handled it all herself!

Seeing that pleading was hopeless, Guan Yue had no choice but to bite her lip in resentment, stomp her foot, and leave the assessment venue.

Only Wang Jingchuan remained, calling Qin Shao to ask her to send another staff member over.

After the interlude, the assessment officially began. There was a fierce beast simulator for the quasi-master level, and one for the intermediate Beastmaster level.

Gu Xiaoyue was arranged to go after Chu Li.

Chu Li went in and used a ring of fire to control the fierce beast, dragging it out for ten minutes.

When he came out, he was still muttering about why he couldn't just kill the fierce beast directly.

In Gu Xiaoyue's view, killing it directly was much easier than controlling the fierce beast itself.

When it was Gu Xiaoyue's turn for the assessment, her fierce beast was a mature, second-tier, mid-stage Four-Winged Golden Roc.

She first commanded Little Bear to set up an Earth Shield, then began to test Xiao Qi's skills.

She started testing from a painless level, then increased the damage of the skills, testing until the Four-Winged Golden Roc was stunned by electricity.

By the time Gu Xiaoyue came out of the simulator, it was just Shui Lingyu's turn to be assessed.

Chu Li didn't ask her if she wanted to wait for Shui Lingyu, but pulled her directly to collect the intermediate Beastmaster badge.

The newly arranged staff member had already prepared the intermediate Beastmaster badge.

Gu Xiaoyue was a bit worried, as she had had severe headaches both times she had collected a badge before.

So she agreed with Chu Li beforehand that they would immediately find an empty lounge after receiving the badge.

Chu Li also remembered Gu Xiaoyue's strange behavior during the two previous times she had collected badges, so he nodded in agreement without hesitation.

Gu Xiaoyue took a deep breath and took the badge from the staff member's hand—a bronze badge, with the small text below reading: Intermediate Beastmaster.

There was no incessant headache as she had expected, only a slight throbbing pain, but she was still pulled by Chu Li into an empty lounge.

She closed her eyes and used her mental intent to feel the changes in her Yu Beast Space.

In addition to feeling that the territory had expanded further, she also felt that in the Yu Beast Space—the wind had started, blowing the branches and grass to sway.

Gu Xiaoyue's previous Yu Beast Space had waves but no wind; this time, the wind made her feel exceptionally refreshed.

"Ding—detected that the host has become an Intermediate Beastmaster—New Achievement—Intermediate Beastmaster (Achieved), rewarded 500 points."

In the system store, the items in the Intermediate Beastmaster section were also unlocked.

Seeing the content of the items, Gu Xiaoyue's eyes lit up.

300 points could be exchanged for a year's supply of God Rank beast food, and 600 points could be exchanged for a heavenly crafting stone, which could only be exchanged once a month.

She immediately exchanged for a year's supply of beast food for Ying Long and Hou. Previously, they had just made do with Immortal Tier beast food, which meant that even after more than ten days, Ying Long and Hou were only at Young life stage 2.

Beast food that did not match the corresponding tier would affect the development of the pet beasts, so Gu Xiaoyue hadn't even fed them the lanzhi grass.

Now that she had the God Rank beast food, she also fed them the lanzhi grass.

She then exchanged for another heavenly crafting stone, and her points were already running low.

Gu Xiaoyue was a bit anxious about upgrading their skills. Looking at the more than 100 drops of spirit condensation dew in her Yu Beast Space, she fed each of her pet beasts two drops.

After finishing all this, she opened her eyes and saw Chu Li staring at her.

Gu Xiaoyue smiled awkwardly, "I made you worry."

Chu Li shook his head; he also didn't understand why Gu Xiaoyue was always so uncomfortable every time her Beastmaster rank changed.

But he didn't ask; he knew that was Gu Xiaoyue's secret—the secret regarding her Beastmaster talent and her Yu Beast Space.

Gu Xiaoyue smiled; she felt that her Mental Power had significantly improved.

Wait, she suddenly realized a problem—

Previously, Teacher Bai had said that low-level and intermediate Beastmasters could summon one pet beast, while advanced and quasi-master Beastmasters could summon two pet beasts.

It was because of the increase in Mental Power, not because of the increase in Beastmaster rank.

It was her understanding that had put the cart before the horse!

Gu Xiaoyue could summon two pet beasts before, and after absorbing the gathering spirit stone, she could summon four pet beasts.

She had always thought that when she upgraded to an advanced Beastmaster, she could summon one more pet beast, but now she finally understood.

It was the increase in Mental Power that allowed for summoning more pet beasts!

She couldn't wait to find a place to test how many pet beasts she could summon now!