Chapter 60
Chapter 60: We Agreed to Be Dogs Together—So Why Did You Evolve in Secret?
It didn’t take long for the contracted beasts’ sudden meltdown to draw a crowd.
Their contract masters panicked first. The instant they realized their beasts weren’t listening, they charged after them, snatching at leashes and collars and hauling back like their lives depended on it.
“Old Liu! Stop running! Get back here!”
“Hold it in! You can’t eat people! They taste awful, I swear!”
“Damn it—fatass, I can’t pull you! Somebody help me already!”
It didn’t matter. The blazing hounds ripped free without mercy and kept lunging at A Tu, howls stacking into a deafening wall of noise.
They were furious.
We agreed to be dogs together, and you evolved in secret?
Fine. You evolved—why didn’t you take us with you?!
A few of them pinned A Tu down with their paws and shoved their noses into his fur, sniffing like their lives depended on it.
“What’s going on?” A beast-taming instructor came sprinting over. One glance at the snarling pile and he blurted, “Why are contracted beasts fighting a blazing hound?”
And this blazing hound looked… weirdly familiar.
Wait. Wasn’t this… A Tu?
His gaze snapped to Qian Qi.
Qian Qi thought for two seconds, then said solemnly, “If I told you they’re A Tu’s old flames, and they got so emotional after not seeing each other that they wanted to do something exciting… would you believe me?”
The instructor: “???”
Yeah. Right.
They’re all male. Do what, exactly?
“You lot! Separate them!” the instructor barked. “If this keeps going, someone’s going to get hurt!”
“Teacher, we can’t hold them!”
The beast-tamer students were about to cry. Sure, once a contract succeeded, a contracted beast would attack on command and—under its contract master’s orders—wouldn’t harm humans…
But everything else depended on the beast’s mood.
The instructor clicked his tongue, already about to go find Uncle Li—when “Old Liu” shoved its nose into A Tu’s belly.
A blazing hound’s nose was sharp. Old Liu instantly caught an unfamiliar human scent—strong and concentrated, right on the belly, the exact spot blazing hounds treated like a weakness.
That could only mean one thing.
This blazing hound had completely submitted.
Oh, wow.
So you’re not just evolving—you’re also throwing yourself at her?
You aren’t even contracted yet and you’ve already picked a human?
The contracted beasts snorted at A Tu in disgust.
Could A Tu take that?
Not a chance.
He lifted his snout and let out a furious, muffled howl. “Then don’t go to her for body evolution if you’ve got any pride! Stay E-rank trash magic hounds forever!”
The contracted beasts froze.
What?
Body evolution?
The secret… was a human?
Contracted magic beasts were smarter than wild ones. They understood the difference between humans and food. And now they were hearing a human had helped a blazing hound evolve.
Their eyes went wide.
Who?
Who made Old Nine evolve?
They lifted their heads and sniffed the air.
One by one, their noses snapped in the same direction—
To Qian Qi, holding a leash.
It was her.
She did it.
Joy flickered across their faces—so human it was unsettling. Then they kicked off and charged straight at Qian Qi.
Qian Qi, who had already opened her lightbrain to record a “wild beast documentary”: “???”
What are you doing?
Don’t come over—she hit dogs whenever she felt like it. She didn’t care who the master was!
Behind her back, her palm flexed, ready to swing.
The beast-taming instructor thought they were about to bite her. He raised a hand to strike—
And the beast-tamer students clung to his arm like their lives depended on it. “Teacher! Easy! Don’t kill them! We worked so hard to contract them—!”
“Hey,” Uncle Li drawled from the side, strolling over like he was out for a casual walk. “Little Jiang. No rush.”
With one lazy motion, he pressed the instructor’s arm down.
The instructor turned, saw Uncle Li, and exhaled.
If Uncle Li said it was fine, then it was fine.
Uncle Li ran the magic beast storage room. Nobody knew magic beasts better than him—and every teacher knew the man could walk more than a dozen D-rank magic beasts at once like it was nothing.
Still…
Was Qian Qi really okay?
She was just a normal person, and those were E-rank magic hounds!
The instructor and the beast-tamer students stared, breath held.
Then, stunned, they watched the contracted beasts skid to a stop in front of Qian Qi.
They knew humans were fragile. Instead of tackling her, they circled her, pacing, sniffing, confirming.
“It’s this smell.”
“That strong ‘son’ stink.”
“She’s got Old Nine’s fur on her.”
Once they were sure, they dipped their heads and rubbed against her. Some sniffed her sleeves. One even tapped her back with a cautious paw.
Old Liu was the worst. It wagged its tail like a puppy and gently nibbled the edge of her clothes, fangs scraping fabric with humiliating tenderness.
Qian Qi: “???”
What do you want?
Liu Sheng—Old Liu’s contract master—stared at the scene and finally said, “It’s asking you for something.”
Old Liu had never acted cute. Not once. Except that one time they’d passed a fire qilin fruit stall. That day, Old Liu had dropped all dignity, wagged its tail, and tugged at his clothes until Liu Sheng’s brain short-circuited and he blew a fortune on that flashy, useless fruit.
Now Qian Qi scratched her head, still lost. “Asking me for something?”
She could… wait.
Oh.
Dog-petting guide, chapter one, drifted into her mind like a cursed prophecy.
System instantly started narrating in her head:
[Qian Qi brainstormed.]
[Qian Qi understood.]
[Qian Qi truly understood!]
Qian Qi’s eye twitched. “Hey! Dog System! Stop dubbing me whenever you feel like it!”
She shooed it away, but—unfortunately—she really had understood.
She’d cleaned enough blazing hound butts to know the ratio.
More than twenty blazing hounds, and only two were female. If the males wanted attention, they needed flexible, creative moves to stand out.
And A Tu’s show-off stunt had just handed them the answer on a silver platter.
Qian Qi let out a long breath, equal parts impressed and horrified.
So this was what a two-million dog-petting guide looked like. Unreal. Practical. Terrifyingly accurate.
A plan clicked into place in her mind, neat as a trap.
If she used this right…
She could train the blazing hounds.