On the surging sea, a girl dressed in a snow-white coat stood with a cold, aloof temperament. She put away her phone, her black hair fluttering in the wind. Beneath her feet was not a ship's deck, but the scaled back of a massive, dinosaur-like giant lizard covered in dark brown armor.
She raised her head. Not far away in the sky, a giant bird with a wingspan exceeding five meters hovered in place. Its feathers resembled translucent ice crystals, continuously scattering snowflakes downward, freezing even the crests of the waves.
Standing on the bird's back was a blonde girl with a noble aura. She wore an ornate dress and held a gem-studded folding fan, a smile playing at the corners of her lips.
"Boyfriend?"
"Junior." Su Muli replied calmly.
She cared about Jiang Xing's studies because she saw her past self in him.
A poor background, outstanding talent, relentless effort…
Back then, it had been her mentor and seniors who pulled her forward, changing her fate.
Now that she had reached the front, she also wanted to extend a hand and pull the younger generation along.
"Really? I don't believe you."
The blonde girl flicked open her fan, covering her smile.
Su Muli raised an eyebrow and spoke.
"Storm Sea Lizard—Violent Tempest!"
The winds shifted, clouds churned, towering waves surged—battle erupted in an instant!
…
Inside the laboratory, Jiang Xing had no idea that Senior Su was engaged in such an intense battle.
However, the sound of waves coming through the phone indicated that she was busy overseas.
So Jiang Xing didn't wait stubbornly for the move data to arrive. Instead, he tidied up and left Yuzhong University.
With resources and moves solved, the only thing left was the Golden-Patterned Koi itself!
As a common ornamental Pet Beast, the Golden-Patterned Koi was inexpensive and highly popular, almost a staple in aquarium shops.
In water-type breeding farms, they even had their own dedicated sections.
As a student majoring in Water-Type Pet Beast Research, Jiang Xing was very familiar with the owner of a breeding farm—Li Shun.
In fact, Li Shun had once also been a student in the same major. However, due to insufficient talent, he couldn't keep up with the curriculum and eventually switched to Water-Type Pet Beast Breeding. After graduation, he opened his own farm.
He still considered himself a student of Dr. Xu, believing the doctor had helped him greatly. As a result, he treated Su Muli, Jiang Xing, and the others like juniors, always being very warm toward them.
At Li Shun's farm, Jiang Xing bought 80 Golden-Patterned Koi at a cost price of 800 yuan each, spending a total of 64,000 yuan.
Moreover, the talent quality of these koi was quite good. Outside, each would cost at least 3,000 yuan!
'Another favor owed…'
Jiang Xing had no choice. Previously, the 500,000 yuan research fund he had applied for from Dr. Xu had dwindled to less than 50,000.
Even counting his savings from scholarships and part-time work, his total funds were only around 300,000 yuan.
If he didn't economize, even with a Berry Blender to reduce training costs, it still wouldn't be enough to complete his research.
So Jiang Xing could only owe these favors for now, planning to repay them slowly once he developed further.
Since he already owed a favor, Jiang Xing didn't bother being overly polite.
He asked Senior Li whether the farm had any Golden-Patterned Koi with a "brave" personality.
Because the Golden-Patterned Koi's Species Tier was too low—comparable to the weakest insect-type Pet Beasts—it was only at Low Extraordinary Tier. Even after evolution, it could at most reach High Extraordinary Tier.
The upper limit was simply too low. No one would cultivate them for combat—they existed purely as ornamental Pet Beasts.
As a result, through artificial selection, Golden-Patterned Koi were almost all "docile," "timid," or "introverted," making them suitable as pets.
In fact, even Jiang Xing, when conducting experiments, had selected docile individuals for easier handling since he wasn't a Beast Tamer.
With all these factors combined, it was basically impossible to find a brave Golden-Patterned Koi on the market—one could only look for them in breeding farms.
As expected, Li Shun replied: "A brave Golden-Patterned Koi? There are indeed a few in the farm. They're defective products from breeding—no one wants to buy them, and they'll eventually be released into the wild…"
"If you want them, junior, I'll just give them to you for free."
"Thank you, senior!" Jiang Xing said happily.
Free experimental Pet Beasts—what a deal!
Li Shun asked curiously: "Junior, you want brave Golden-Patterned Koi—did you come up with a new thesis idea?"
"Yeah." Jiang Xing nodded. "Previously, I only studied docile ones. The data isn't complete. I plan to include personality as an evolutionary variable and run another round of tests."
"As expected of you, junior Jiang. Very creative," Li Shun praised, then added: "In that case, among the Golden-Patterned Koi I've bred, there's a fish king. Want to take a look?"
"A… fish king among Golden-Patterned Koi?"
Jiang Xing showed a surprised expression.
In this world, Pet Beasts generally had high intelligence. Even an insect-type Pet Beast could understand human speech.
Such high intelligence naturally brought changes to species.
Thus, in wild Pet Beast groups, there were often "leaders" or "lords."
They were the elites of their kind, outstanding in both strength and potential.
In fact, the classification of Pet Beast tiers used by humans was based on this:
Extraordinary → Commander → Monarch → Overlord → Mythical.
These were the five major Species Tiers.
However…
Leaders usually appeared in wild populations.
For a domestically bred group like the Golden-Patterned Koi—one of the most docile species—to produce a fish king was astonishing!
"That's right," Li Shun said with a hint of pride.
"It's also a brave Golden-Patterned Koi. Its talent far surpasses others of its kind, and it's extremely intelligent—it even knows how to hide itself."
"It's been around for several years. It was neither caught by customers nor released into the wild, secretly growing in the depths of the pond."
"Until one time, a customer accidentally put a Jawbone Fish into the koi pond. It appeared and knocked the Jawbone Fish away, protecting the other Golden-Patterned Koi. That's when we discovered it."
"Since then, it became the leader of the school. All the koi in the pond obey it, and they even actively protect it to prevent us from catching it."
"A fish king like this is extremely rare, so I decided to keep it."
"Junior, since your thesis requires brave Golden-Patterned Koi…"
"It's absolutely an excellent choice!"
Jiang Xing's eyes lit up—it really was a fish king!
With its help, the probability of evolving the Golden-Patterned Koi into a dragon-type Pet Beast could increase several times over!
Just as he was getting excited, Jiang Xing noticed Li Shun's smile and had a realization.
"Senior… if I want to obtain this fish king, it won't be that simple, right?"
"Hehe." Li Shun chuckled. "Many customers, after hearing its story, want to get it."
"But there's only one fish king, and too many people want it—it's impossible to distribute."
"So I set a wager: without using any external force, whoever can earn the fish king's recognition and make it willingly follow them can take it for free!"