"Well, my Beast Taming level is Level 1 now."
The moment the words left his mouth, both his father and Li Yuan turned to look at him in unison as Chen Shu concentrated, summoning a golden slime into his palm.
Every Beast Tamer possessed an exclusive Beast Space where their Contract Spirits resided, but since Chen Shu had only ever treated the slime as an ornamental pet, he'd simply kept it at home.
"It really is," both men said, sensing the slime's aura had reached the level of a Level 1 Contract Spirit. A Beast Tamer's advancement automatically improved their Contract Spirit's power, boosting all of its attributes.
If the Contract Spirit possessed high potential ratings, it might even awaken new talents or skills during advancement.
Chen Shu had completed his last choice and received a Medium-Grade Beast Taming Power reward, which was exactly what had allowed him to advance to Level 1 Beast Tamer.
"Old Li, there shouldn't be any problem now, right?"
Chen Ping hadn't expected his son to quietly level up without anyone noticing—it seemed Chen Shu really wasn't just messing around after all.
"Fine, since you're both so insistent about this, I'll talk to the school."
Father and son left the office thoroughly satisfied with themselves.
"I really don't know if this is good or bad," Li Yuan sighed, reaching for another cigarette. "Hey, where's my lighter? Damn it, Old Chen Pi swiped it again!"
...
When Chen Shu returned to his classroom, a concerned group of classmates immediately swarmed him, though their concern quickly turned to deep disappointment when they confirmed he had emerged from Li Yuan's office completely unscathed.
"I thought we'd finally get to hold a funeral feast... what a shame. I was even planning to sit at the kids' table," Zhang Dali sighed with genuine regret written across his features.
"A funeral feast? What a funeral feast!" Chen Shu laughed as he playfully cursed at Zhang Dali, then returned to his corner seat.
"Black Whirlwind really didn't give you trouble?" someone asked curiously.
"Of course he did!" Chen Shu replied with theatrical exasperation. "Old Li kept insisting I join a Beast Taming Class, but I told him I just wanted to be an ordinary person with no interest in becoming powerful. In the end, though, I just couldn't resist his constant persuasion!"
"Get lost!" the surrounding classmates shouted in unison, turning back to their seats with disdain.
Their reaction only made Chen Shu burst into delighted laughter as he called out loudly, "From the northwest, mysterious clouds gather in the sky—truly like a phoenix fallen among a flock of crows!"¹
What greeted him was only the entire class's contemptuous gazes.
Everyone was clearly used to Chen Shu's insufferable personality by now—they might as well just call him Chen Pi, or Chen Jian² would be even better.
Ding ding ding!
The class bell rang out across the school. All the students sat up straight and took out their textbooks, waiting for class to begin.
But instead of Black Whirlwind, a refined, scholarly-looking male teacher walked in and asked, "Which student is Chen Shu? Please come outside for a moment."
Chen Shu slowly stood up, deliberately coughed a few times to emphasize his presence, then leisurely strolled toward the classroom door.
"That's a Beast Taming Class teacher—is Chen Pi really going to transfer classes?" one student whispered nervously.
"It seems like he really is. He's always had Beast Taming talent, but his Contract Spirit's rating was just too terrible, so he chose to give up before, didn't he?" another replied thoughtfully.
"Looks like the world is about to lose one of its greatest menaces," a third added with obvious relief.
The classroom buzzed with excited whispers, and the atmosphere actually became noticeably more cheerful.
"Oh? It's you! Has your condition improved?"
The teacher outside was Fang Ke, the very same one who had encountered Chen Shu wandering around last Saturday and the homeroom teacher for Beast Taming Class 5.
Chen Shu pondered for a moment before responding: "It's better, but not completely cured."
Fang Ke looked speechless: "Old Li asked me to notify you—pack up your textbooks this afternoon and report directly to Beast Taming Class 5."
"Teacher, why Beast Taming Class 5? What about Class 1's homeroom teacher?"
"Are you seriously dreaming of peaches right now?"³
Fang Ke finally couldn't hold back anymore.
Beast Taming Class 1 was reserved exclusively for the grade's elite students—every single person inside had at least a D-Rank Contract Spirit. Unlike regular students, competition in Beast Taming Classes were extremely fierce, with five classes total ranked according to students' overall performance.
The goal was to cultivate students' competitive awareness and make them desperately eager to improve their abilities.
For Chen Shu to want Beast Taming Class 1 from the start was pure delusional wishful thinking. Being able to get into Beast Taming Class 5 was already pushing the limits of possibility.
Chen Shu sighed in resignation. Beast Taming Class 5 would have to do for now, especially since his strength was bound to improve. After all, if one choice had made him a Level 1 Beast Tamer, a few more would surely send him skyrocketing to success.
That afternoon, Chen Shu had packed all his belongings and stood waiting outside the Beast Taming Class 5 classroom.
"Students, today our Beast Taming Class 5 will be welcoming a new classmate," Teacher Fang Ke announced from behind his black-framed glasses, gesturing for Chen Shu to enter. "He's Chen Shu, transferring from the regular classes—everyone please give him a warm welcome!"
"Hello everyone, I'm Chen Shu from Regular Class 3."
With his hands held behind his back like a high-ranking leader on inspection, Chen Shu began his outrageous self-introduction, his voice growing more grandiose with each word.
"I am in excellent physical health, possessing strikingly handsome features, and have absolutely no bad habits whatsoever!"
He thought for a second.
"I'm also proficient in Chinese, Mathematics, English, and all the Sciences—people call me the ‘Spotless Beautiful Youth and the Honest and Reliable Young Gentleman’!"
He was silent to build up the tension. The classroom held its collective breath as Chen Shu reached the climactic moment of his speech:
"If you don't mind the familiarity, you can all call me Uncle Chen, or just Uncle!"
...
The complete and utter shock left everyone in silence. Nobody could have possibly anticipated such an absolutely ridiculous self-introduction.
"Alright! Alright! That's quite enough!"
Teacher Fang Ke interrupted with a strained smile plastered across his face, beads of perspiration forming on his forehead despite his best efforts to maintain composure.
What kind of supernatural weirdos were ending up in Beast Taming Class 5? This team was getting harder and harder to manage.
"Teacher, I haven't finished my introduction—"
"Chen Shu, take your seat," Fang Ke interrupted, quickly pointing to a seat in the back row before any more of this nonsense could make him lose his temper.
As Old Li had warned, this Chen Shu was definitely not going to be easy to handle.
Looking genuinely disappointed that he wouldn't get to showcase the thousand-word, self-praising masterpiece he had prepared, Chen Shu gathered his textbooks and made his way to the assigned seat as multiple students stared at him with curiosity.
Chen Shu responded to each gaze with friendly smiles and polite nods, radiating an aura of approachable warmth.
Beast Taming Classes maintained fixed student populations of exactly 24 students each, but with Chen Shu's addition, Beast Taming Class 5 had become the only special exception in the entire grade.
"Now let's begin class. Chen Shu, since you're newly transferred here, I hope you'll work hard to catch up with the class's current progress as quickly as possible."
Teacher Fang Ke resumed his serious expression and began the afternoon's lesson.
"Take out 'Three Years of Beast Taming, Five Years of Success.'⁴ Today we'll be working through practice problems from this book since next month's exam is coming up—I expect everyone to take this seriously!"
"Why does that title sound so weird? There's something oddly ominous about it," Chen Shu muttered under his breath.