Animal-eared Girl Era: Start by Forming a Contract with an SSS-Class School Belle

"If you like me, just take a few more looks," Xiao Ye said,

Liu Ya rolled her beautiful eyes, "I thought you were going to give it to me!"

*Even Supreme Venerables coveted treasures like this, so of course she really wanted one too.*

Xiao Ye caught the likestruck look in his goddess teaching assistant's eyes. He snatched the supreme-class crystal and stuffed it into his pocket, his dark eyes twinkling as he said,

"Seen enough yet? If so, let's head home."

"Ah, what a shame. I was hoping to snag a few more Rule Fragment Crystals, but someone here is just too high and mighty to help out."

"I'd love to give you one, but you won't let me. Such a pity!"

As he spoke, Xiao Ye grabbed Liu Ya's soft little hand, hopping down from the ancient tree, ready to head back.

But suddenly, the goddess teaching assistant might as well have had her feet set in concrete—no matter how hard he pulled, she wouldn't budge.

Xiao Ye's eyes flashed with mischief as he said, "Teaching assistant, we're leaving. Why aren't you coming?"

Liu Ya stared at Xiao Ye in disbelief, her slender finger pointing at the mound as she exclaimed in surprise, "Wait a minute! Are you saying you got your precious loot from these demon beasts?"

Xiao Ye nodded, mischief still in his eyes.

Liu Ya was shocked, "What the—! This kind of supreme treasure should at least require someone at the Venerable Realm or higher to handle! How did you so easily..."

As she spoke, she hurriedly covered her blushing lips with a delicate white hand, glancing around to make sure no one else was there, then continued,

"...so easily snagged it!"

Xiao Ye sighed deeply, pretending to turn away, and said, "Yeah, but our goddess teaching assistant is a woman of principle. She won't make a move, so let's go, let's go home."

Liu Ya's face went pink, her eyes showing a hint of struggle. After a few seconds, she made up her mind, "Xiao Ye, let's keep hunting the demon beast group."

"Wherever you point, I'll fight. The spot your finger lands on is my battlefield!"

But Xiao Ye shook his head, "No way! You, teaching assistant, are a principled instructor. I, Xiao Ye, am not the kind of shameless guy who likes to force others."

Liu Ya: ...

She stomped her foot in frustration, pouting, "Come on! You're not forcing me! I want to do it!" Brought to you by the folks at MV|LEMPYR.

"C'mon, let's go kill some demon beasts together!" she pleaded, face full of hope.

Xiao Ye shook his head again, wagging his index finger, "No, no, no. This demon beast group was bought by the academy at a huge price, all so that elite students can practice live combat."

Liu Ya: ...

*How had she never realized before that Xiao Ye was such a master of sarcasm and snark?*

*Still, if she could get treasures coveted even by Venerables from a few Grandmaster-level demon beast groups, she'd happily keep killing more!*

Seeing the mischief in Xiao Ye's eyes, Liu Ya's mouth twitched. *This guy was even playing hard to get now—seriously?*

"Oh, please! You're an elite student at the academy too! The others get to train here, and so do you. I'm just protecting you, that's all," she tried to justify.

*Xiao Ye was laughing like crazy inside. Where's that holier-than-thou attitude from before? Gone, huh?*

He glanced at Liu Ya's pretty, eager face and stroked his chin, "Who was begging for mercy last night?"

Liu Ya: ...

"Of course it was me!" For Rule Fragment Crystals, she decided she could swallow her pride.

Xiao Ye nodded approvingly, "Yeah, it was you before, and it'll be you next time too."

Liu Ya's face darkened. *Excuse you, it was clearly you!* she thought, but out loud she only said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're totally right."

"Let's hurry up and kill some demon beasts, okay?" she pleaded again, face bright with hope.

Xiao Ye put on a troubled face, then sighed in defeat, "Alright then, since you, teaching assistant, have asked so desperately, I, Xiao Ye, will reluctantly agree. Remember, I'm a man of principle. This whole plan was your idea!"

Liu Ya's face darkened again. *This two-faced man—he's such a jerk!*

But her mood instantly brightened, a dazzling smile blooming on her stunning face. Excitement building, she beamed, "Yup, that's right, it's my idea! From now on, watch me in action. You just focus on collecting the treasures!"

*She didn't bother questioning how Xiao Ye could extract Fragment Crystals from Grandmaster-level demon beasts. Everyone had their secrets—so did she. Digging isn't respect. She chose not to ask as a form of respect for Xiao Ye.*

Back by the groundhog mutant beast group on the mounds, the whole crew had been set off by losing over twenty of their buddies just now.

*Maybe it was fear of Xiao Ye and Liu Ya's power, or maybe they were following the king beast's orders.*

They all burrowed underground, avoiding a fight, like they were hiding out.

Xiao Ye signaled with his eyes and Liu Ya made her move.

A human in the Great Venerable Realm was crazy strong. With a gentle lift of her hand, groundhog mutant beasts hidden dozens of meters deep in the mounds shot out like bamboo shoots after the rain, popping up one after another.

Five, ten, twenty, a total of thirty-six—every one of them were gripped and trapped midair by a huge invisible hand, squeezed into a mass.

"Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp!" Their panicked limbs flailed all over, totally lost and terrified, eyes wide with fear.

Xiao Ye sensed them and realized there was no king beast with a dominating aura among them. He reminded her, "Teaching assistant, did you miss something?"

The groundhog mutant beast with the king beast bloodline wasn't caught.

With that prompt, Liu Ya's spiritual telekinesis swept out, penetrating deeper underground. Three hundred meters down, she pinpointed where the king beast bloodline was hiding.

"Found them!" she said, channeling more power.

Three mutant beasts with king beast bloodlines, including a Grandmaster Ten-Star king beast, were forcefully yanked from the depths by that invisible hand, pulled through earth and rock, and held fast in the air.

"Thirty-nine total, all present and accounted for." Liu Ya smiled in satisfaction. "Xiao Ye, what next?"

Xiao Ye suggested, "Injure them badly, and then leave the rest to me."

Liu Ya effortlessly crushed the mutant beasts to the brink of death.

Xiao Ye activated the Template Adjuster's extraction function.

[Grandmaster Realm Groundhog Mutant Beast, successfully extracted 20 Earth Element Rule Fragment Crystals]

[Grandmaster Realm Mutant Beast, successfully extracted 16 Creation Crystals]

[Grandmaster Realm King Beast, successfully extracted 2 Supreme Crystals]

[Grandmaster Realm King Beast, successfully extracted 1 Earth Element Crystal]

Xiao Ye was satisfied—the Earth Crystals were enough, and there were two more Supreme Crystals to boot.

*But what surprised him was, not every king beast bloodline monster would give Supreme Crystals. Sometimes, you might just get another type of attribute crystal instead.*

Liu Ya was stunned, watching as those mutant beasts in mid-air seemed to suffer the most horrifying agony. Their bodies convulsed violently before decaying, a rotten stench spreading, with the remains finally drifting away as dust in the sky.

"You really can get supreme treasures this way?" she asked, doubt flickering in her eyes, still unable to believe it.

Just as Xiao Ye was checking the system space, the goddess teaching assistant Liu Ya bounded over out of curiosity. She dragged Xiao Ye into the thick grass, her face full of anticipation as she asked,

"Did you get it?"

Xiao Ye nodded, pulling an Earth Element Rule Fragment Crystal from his pocket.

"Whoa! It's real!" Liu Ya was delighted, turning the crystal over in her hand.

"Let's keep going! There are so many demon beast groups here, we can wipe them all out in one go!" she said excitedly, "With dozens of demon beast groups, we'll net dozens of treasures!"

*Xiao Ye was dumbfounded. You really think you only get one per demon beast group?*