"Honey, another batch of Golden-Patterned Koi has arrived at the entrance. Go receive them."
Listening to his wife's slightly complaining voice on the phone, Li Shun replied: "By the way, what do you need so many Brave-natured Golden-Patterned Koi for? They're not popular. Even if someone occasionally wants to buy them, the ones bred in our farm are already enough. Is there really a need to bring in this many?"
"I have a junior who's researching the evolved form of the Golden-Patterned Koi… If his research succeeds and proves they have Dragon-type potential, the price of these koi will skyrocket."
Li Shun explained.
His wife, also a top student who had graduated from the Pet Beast breeding major and possessed considerable professional knowledge, couldn't help but complain: "Carp leaping over the Dragon Gate? That's just a legend. Even if he's a student of Dr. Xu, it doesn't mean he'll succeed."
"I believe he can do it," Li Shun said. "Besides, Brave-natured Golden-Patterned Koi are cheap to begin with. Even if he fails, we won't lose much."
"Fine, fine. I'll listen to you."
She had only been venting a little. Seeing that Li Shun insisted, she stopped trying to persuade him.
After hanging up, Li Shun—who had spoken with such certainty—couldn't help but feel a bit doubtful inside.
Golden-Patterned Koi, like most insect-type Pet Beasts, had a very low upper limit. But that also meant they could easily reach that limit and meet evolution requirements.
Unlike certain Overlord-tier species, whose potential was high but required long periods of time and vast resources to nurture.
More than a month had already passed, and there had been no news at all from Jiang Xing's side.
Could it be that he had failed?
After all, the topic of koi transforming into dragons was indeed extremely difficult. Failure was commonplace…
Thinking this, Li Shun arrived at the entrance of the breeding farm, brought in the newly arrived truck of Golden-Patterned Koi, and released them into the fish pond.
Then he noticed that the anglers by the pond had all gathered together, letting out exclamations of amazement one after another.
Ever since the Fish King had been taken away by Jiang Xing, such a scene had never appeared again.
Curious, Li Shun walked over.
"What are you all doing?"
"The boss is here?"
"Hey, do you even realize you've struck it rich?"
"Boss Li, congratulations, congratulations—you're about to make a huge profit!"
"Boss Li, congrats on getting rich! Give us a red envelope so we can share in the luck!"
The anglers immediately started making noise as soon as they saw Li Shun, their faces full of envy and excitement.
Hearing their words, Li Shun thought of the Golden-Patterned Koi he had just released into the pond, and his heart began to race.
"What are you talking about?"
Seeing his reaction, the anglers burst into laughter and stopped beating around the bush. One of them held up a phone and said: "Boss, look at this video. The Golden-Patterned Koi Fish King that was taken away some time ago—it leaped the gate and turned into a dragon at Yuzhong Waterfall!"
"This size, this temperament, this way the other fish are clustering around it… I knew at a glance it was that one!"
"Sigh, I always thought it wasn't something that would stay in a pond. If I had known earlier, I would've contracted it back then. Then the one with a Dragon-type Pet Beast now would be me…"
Li Shun was shaken to the core. He directly snatched the phone from the angler and started watching the video.
From a tourist's perspective, the video fully recorded the entire process—from the Golden-Patterned Koi school beginning the challenge to the final evolution.
When Li Shun saw that distinctive Fish King, saw the young men and women on the shore, he was overjoyed.
Junior Jiang actually succeeded!
He really hadn't misjudged him!
Worthy of being his junior—worthy of being their teacher's student!!
The video came from the country's largest public social media platform. Returning to the homepage, the topic [Golden-Patterned Koi, Leaping the Gate to Become a Dragon] had already become the number one trending topic!
This was only natural. Golden-Patterned Koi were common ornamental Pet Beasts—many households kept them.
Now that they had displayed a completely new, immensely promising true dragon evolution form, they naturally attracted massive attention.
Moreover, Su Muli had also appeared in the video.
She was the youngest King-Class Beast Tamer in China, and also strikingly beautiful. She already had extremely high popularity online, comparable to top-tier celebrities.
Once the "leap the Dragon Gate" event became associated with her, the hype instantly exploded.
Many people believed this was her latest research, praising her as the top water-type researcher in China—always able to produce such heaven-defying results…
Even official accounts from China and the Beast Tamer Association tagged Su Muli's social account.
They hoped she would quickly complete her paper and record this brand-new true dragon Pet Beast into the Beast Compendium.
Only Li Shun knew that this was not Su Muli's research topic—it was Jiang Xing's.
Sure enough, when faced with all the inquiries, Su Muli directly "sold out" her junior:
"Leaping the Dragon Gate is not my research topic, but my junior Jiang Xing's final paper."
"He is also a student of Dr. Xu, a sophomore this year. He independently completed the conception and validation of this topic, and successfully researched a brand-new Pet Beast form. He is an exceptionally talented scholar, and I believe he will become an outstanding researcher in the future."
"At present, he is still finalizing and summarizing his paper. I believe he will bring us a surprise."
"@LittleStar, this is his social account. If you're in a hurry, you can go urge him directly."
With Su Muli personally clarifying things, no one doubted it.
Moreover, Jiang Xing was a student of a water-type PhD—a truly high-potential scholar.
No one questioned his ability, because doing so would be questioning the judgment of a top researcher.
In an instant, the focus of attention shifted from Su Muli to this young student.
Some people noticed that he was standing beside Su Muli in the video and thought he was very handsome.
Others lamented that, as fellow sophomores, they themselves were still learning about evolution theory, while he had already developed a top-tier evolutionary form.
There were also those who praised Dr. Xu's keen eye, saying he was about to cultivate another top student.
All kinds of discussions sprang up endlessly.
Li Shun, having figured out the whole story, returned the phone and ran all the way back to his office, calling Jiang Xing.
"Junior, congratulations on completing the research on 'leaping the Dragon Gate'!"
"Thanks, Senior." Jiang Xing wasn't surprised.
Li Shun was also a senior to Su Muli and had connections with many researchers—it wasn't strange for him to know about the research results.
However, Li Shun's next sentence made him realize something was off—
"Thanks to you, the farm's popularity is about to skyrocket. And what I said before still stands—if you have any more research projects in the future, I can provide Water-type Pet Beasts for free!"
"…Popularity skyrocketing?"
"Check your social account."
After returning to the lab, Jiang Xing had been busy testing Pet Beast data and hadn't had time to look at his phone.
After hanging up, he opened his social account—and his eyes widened.
Originally, his account had only a handful of mutual followers. On the platform, he was basically an unknown nobody.
Now, his followers had surged from single digits to five digits—and were still rising!
His inbox and notifications had already exceeded 999, completely impossible to go through.
Opening the trending topics, he scrolled for quite a while before finally understanding what had happened from a bystander's perspective.
Jiang Xing opened Su Muli's chat window and sent a message: "Senior, you actually sold me out!"
A reply popped up almost instantly.
"Hehe, [sticker: tilted-head marine iguana]."
Seeing her play dumb, Jiang Xing felt a bit helpless.
However, this was actually his own misjudgment—
He had thought that since Pet Beast evolution could serve as a sophomore's final paper, and since researchers regularly published new Pet Beast forms, it wasn't truly cutting-edge research.
Among those, powerful evolutions involving dragon, phoenix, light, and dark attributes were also frequently published—nothing unique.
There was no need to be overly proud.
However, he had forgotten one thing.
After the worldline changed, his mentor was a top Beast Taming PhD in the entire country—even the world!
The topics and projects he had access to were naturally at the very forefront of research.
The senior he interacted with was also a top-tier researcher.
For those top researchers—or even Beast Taming PhDs—publishing such research was natural.
But that didn't mean it was natural for a university student—
Just like Su Muli, this was top-tier research potential capable of shocking the entire nation!
Secondly, the status of Dragon-type Pet Beasts was not as simple as he had imagined…
'In this world, Overlord-tier species Pet Beasts are true strategic weapons.'
'If I compare it to another world, it's roughly equivalent to me, a sophomore, independently researching and building a fifth-generation fighter jet—then publicly test-flying it successfully, with top researchers backing me…'
Jiang Xing clicked his tongue slightly.
Thinking about it that way, it really was outrageous.
But there was nothing he could do.
"Leaping the Dragon Gate" required a large waterfall as the stage—and such places were famous tourist spots.
It was very difficult to completely seal them off and prevent information leaks.
Moreover, although Pet Beasts held immense strategic value, they were not fighter jets. In the future, the research would inevitably be published and recorded in the Beast Compendium as an academic achievement—there was no need to hide it.
After thinking this through, Jiang Xing looked at the countless eager voices on the forums and couldn't help but smile.
He picked up his phone, took a photo of the baby dragon, added a short description, and posted it.
[Thank you all for your attention. I was able to achieve these research results thanks to my mentor's guidance and my senior sister's help.]
[The paper is still being finalized, so for now, let me show you this cute little dragon and share its name and some basic information to satisfy your curiosity.]
[Name: Rainbow Dragon Hatchling]
[Attributes: Light, Dragon]
[Talent: Unceasing Heart]
[Species Tier: Mid Commander Tier]
[Species Skills: Waterfall Climb, Refraction, Dragon Ritual Dance…]
[Description: A true dragon-type Pet Beast. A weak carp with a fearless heart undergoes a qualitative transformation at the moment it leaps over the Dragon Gate—shedding its fish body and becoming a young true dragon capable of controlling rainbow light.]
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I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
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