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

Mu Qingxue took out a low-grade Crystal Core of the Great Venerable Realm from her storage ring and tossed it onto Xiao Ye's hand.

Xiao Ye happily accepted it.

"You can't tell anyone about you helping me get rid of the poison, or I swear I'll make your life hell," Mu Qingxue said, squinting her eyes in a warning.

Xiao Ye said there was no problem,

Yunxi walked over from the side, "The only reason you got hit by the Charming Poison was because of the Hong family's manipulations, they just used you as a tool."

After retelling the whole sequence of events, Mu Qingxue got really angry.

"Greetings, Venerable Lord Kunpeng."

"So, this was all the Hong family's scheme. Ha, fine, very fine!"

She remembered that the day before the training, she'd chatted with the Young Master of the Hong family, Hong Tao, about buying a Conception Crystal Cave to cultivate her Power of Realm.

The Young Master had agreed at the time.

But the next day, the Hong family launched this Underground Crystal Ore training event.

Yunxi summed up, "Most likely, the Hong family wanted to use the City Lord's Mansion's authority to intimidate me and Yun Bing, then use a fake excuse of seeking justice for you to eliminate Xiao Ye without question."

"You, Xiao Ye, and I were all pieces in the Hong family's plot."

"Only, this deadly trap was spotted by Xiao Ye, who warned me ahead of time, and that's the only reason we broke out of the setup so perfectly."

Mu Qingxue, at this moment, wished she could carve the Hong family into a thousand pieces, "They're going to pay for this!"

Just then, Cheng Bingxi finally woke up, her Sleep Skill effect removed by Yunxi. She rubbed her blurry eyes, still groggy, and walked over, saying,

"I actually fell asleep."

"Huh, aren't you that chick chasing after Xiao Ye? You two together already or what?"

At the time, Mu Qingxue was still leaning on Xiao Ye, which made Cheng Bingxi misunderstand.

Mu Qingxue frowned, "And you are?"

Cheng Bingxi grinned, "I'm Xiao Ye's Contracted Beast Maiden. You passed Xiao Ye's test, but you haven't passed ours yet, you know."

Mu Qingxue pushed Xiao Ye away and sat down on a rock, shook her head and said, "There's nothing going on between me and Xiao Ye."

"But that bastard really has some luck with women, he actually has two Contracted Beast Maidens."

"Let me give you a tip, try your best not to contract more than one beast girl."

She wasn't surprised at all that someone could have more than one Contracted Beast Maiden. Back in ancient times, there were even people who contracted two or more beast girls.

But contracting multiple beast girls would deplete a beastmaster's potential, meaning that beastmaster wouldn't get far on the cultivation path, and the more they contracted, the less they'd accomplish in the future.

Most beastmasters from the ancient days who could contract more than one beast maiden burned out their potential by the time they hit the Great Venerable Realm, unable to take even a single step further.

*She figured Xiao Ye would be the same way!*

*He'd probably hit a dead end at the Great Venerable Realm!*

Xiao Ye didn't care, but Cheng Bingxi took it seriously and rushed forward, asking, "Why?"

Mu Qingxue explained the consequences to Cheng Bingxi.

*It would consume potential, like cutting off your own future.*

Yunxi thought it was interesting—everyone in this era believed beastmasters could only contract one beast maiden; there was zero info anywhere about contracting multiple, yet Mu Qingxue actually knew such details.

After hearing it, Yunxi nodded, "Sounds legit. Everyone's potential is set the day their adult template awakens. Unless you use some crazy rare treasures, it's almost impossible to increase it."

"Everyone agrees you can develop potential, but nobody ever talks about actually increasing it."

"Since Xiao Ye has three beast girl templates, his potential will get split three ways."

Mu Qingxue was stunned, "You bastard, why'd you contract so many beast girls? You've got freaking three of them!"

"Venerable Lord, you really need to keep a closer eye on this idiot. He might have had a shot at going beyond Venerable, but at this rate, it's a miracle if he even becomes a Venerable!"

"And seriously, don't let this punk contract any more beast girls—or break his legs, all three if you have to!" Mu Qingxue snapped viciously, "Xiao Ye, you're done for!"

But Yunxi just shook her head and laughed, "It's fine."

Sourced directly from MV6LEMP6YR.

Cheng Bingxi didn't worry in the slightest, either.

Xiao Ye was speechless, "Maybe you're right, but it doesn't apply to me."

*Potential can't be upgraded—true, potential represents your template, and most people can't improve their template. That's a fact.*

*But I—Xiao Ye—am different. I can level up my template.*

*As its level goes up, my beastmaster talent gets upgraded too.*

*Right now, my beastmaster talent is probably at Mythical Level.*

*Seeing that nobody was worried at all, Mu Qingxue felt annoyed.*

Outside the cave, a loud bang rang out—the gigantic boulder blocking the entrance was blown to pieces. Jie Gangtai rushed in, yelling,

"Xue'er, are you in there?"

No one behind the rock answered.

Jie Gangtai hurriedly scanned the cave, saw everyone, and went straight to Mu Qingxue, grinning ear to ear,

"Xue'er, I finally found you."

But then he suddenly noticed Mu Qingxue's legs trembling, her face pale and exhausted, her ears red.

Thinking she'd been bullied, he charged right up to Xiao Ye, ready to go off on him. But when he remembered how badly Xiao Ye had beaten him before, he forced a bitter laugh,

"Brother Xiao, what a coincidence, running into you here."

Xiao Ye just nodded, "Training's over and went perfectly. We should head back. Take good care of Mu Qingxue, she's really weak. See you around."

Right after he spoke, Yunxi tore open a space rift beside him, and the three of them jumped in, returning to Kunpeng Academy.

Mu Qingxue tried to get up and leave, but her legs were so weak she collapsed to the ground.

Jie Gangtai looked worried and reached out to help her up, but Mu Qingxue dodged him, saying, "Don't touch me. I can stand up by myself."

Mu Qingxue struggled to get up on her own, but her legs gave out again and she flopped back down.

Jie Gangtai fussed, but he was obedient, pulling a soft-padded chair out and putting it on the ground,

"Xue'er, the ground's cold. Sit on the chair."

"I'll let Uncle Mu know so he can teach Xiao Ye a lesson—Xiao Ye's scum! He beat you up so bad you can't even walk right!"

Jie Gangtai had been beaten by Xiao Ye before, so of course he just assumed Mu Qingxue had gotten thrashed by Xiao Ye, too.

Mu Qingxue sat in the soft chair and pulled out a Recovery Potion, hoping to regain some muscle strength, but when she heard what Jie Gangtai said, she got worked up.

Her beautiful eyes glared sharply, "Do not tell my father, or I'll never talk to you again."

She intended to report the Hong family's scheme herself, but would leave out anything about Xiao Ye helping her detox.

"Ah, okay," Jie Gangtai remembered that Xue'er was super proud—if it got out that a guy beat her up, that'd be way too embarrassing.

Half an hour later, after finishing the Recovery Potion, Mu Qingxue finally regained a bit of strength.

She and Jie Gangtai took the central tunnel's slide back up to the surface and returned to the City Lord's Mansion.

What neither of them knew was, the moment they left the Underground Crystal Ore zone, the underground exploded in an unprecedented catastrophe—all the Crystal Stones and Crystal Essence went off like nukes!

The underground caves and facilities a thousand meters down were wiped out to nothing!

The entire area collapsed in on itself!

A few minutes later, the whole Underground Crystal Ore was erased, completely vanishing from this world!