Li Qian watched Sun Shouhe leave, his face a deep, mottled red, and gave a disdainful smile.
To his predecessor, this sort of thing might have been a topic worthy of gossip. But to the current Li Qian, it was just child's play, not even worth mentioning.
After Sun Shouhe left, Fatty An didn't stick around for long either.
For someone like him who had yet to awaken, time was rather tight.
After the brief delay, Li Qian wasted no more time and rode his bike straight to the artificial waterfall at the West Suburb Hydroelectric Power Station.
Just like the day before, Li Qian supervised Qizai and Ah Fu as they trained their Climbing Waterfall Skill, all while studying about breeding. He would occasionally chat with the "Researchers" from the Waste Pet Research Institute, hoping for a flash of inspiration.
Unfortunately, he came up empty-handed.
Unlike the known Evolutionary Form, the Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragon, he didn't even know what kind of Pet Beast the other evolution was. Researching it felt like trying to grab at thin air.
Right now, Li Qian's only confident guess was that the creature's other Evolutionary Form was likely a Western Dragon Species, or perhaps a Sub-dragon Species.
With no other choice, Li Qian had to temporarily halt his research on the Koi Carp's second Evolutionary Form.
He refocused his energy on studying the fundamental knowledge of a Breeder.
Time flew by, and a week passed in the blink of an eye.
After more than a week of training, both fish had made significant progress.
Qizai had already trained its Climbing Waterfall Skill to the Perfection Level, while Ah Fu's Climbing Waterfall Skill had reached the Skilled Level.
This also showed that Ah Fu's Potential was still quite a bit lower than Qizai's.
Of course, it might also have to do with the fact that Qizai trained diligently without rest, whereas Ah Fu would still occasionally slack off.
Qizai trained both its Climbing Waterfall Skill and Fish Jump Skill to the Perfection Level, and its Potential consequently rose to Tier Nine.
With both skills at the Perfection Level, the next step was to break the limit to advance further.
Li Qian didn't hesitate and took out a Limit-Breaking Stone.
He had bought two of them.
Both were purchased from the online Pet Beast Mall.
They cost a total of four hundred thousand.
Adding the one hundred and eighty thousand for the Blood Orchid Potion, the ninety thousand for one and a half kilograms of Dragon Bone Powder, and the five hundred thousand for the Wind Chime Fruit, he had spent a total of one million, one hundred and seventy thousand.
This went directly over his budget.
Li Qian had no choice but to borrow from his parents to afford all these resources.
And though it was called a loan, his parents were actually just giving him the money; they had no intention of making him pay it back.
Taking out the Limit-Breaking Stone, Li Qian pressed it against Qizai's forehead, feeling slightly nervous.
He had done his research and knew that even for a basic skill, using a Limit-Breaking Stone to break the limit had a chance of failure.
And the probability wasn't low, either.
As Qizai mobilized the Energy within its body, the dull gray Limit-Breaking Stone quickly transformed into a streak of gray light and drilled into it.
Seeing this, Li Qian immediately directed Qizai to start using its Fish Jump Skill repeatedly.
The mysterious energy contained within a single Limit-Breaking Stone was enough to support a week of training for Qizai.
Unfortunately, after a week, Qizai's Fish Jump Skill still hadn't broken through; it remained at the Perfection Level.
Although it was a bit of a shame, Li Qian wasn't discouraged.
Based on what he knew, trying to break through a Skill Level with just one low-quality Limit-Breaking Stone was an extremely low-probability event to begin with.
Without hesitation, Li Qian took out the second Limit-Breaking Stone and gave it to Qizai as well.
After about another week, the mysterious energy within the Limit-Breaking Stone was completely absorbed by Qizai.
Li Qian was beginning to think this attempt would also end in failure. Just as he was wondering where he would have to scrounge up more money, a pleasant surprise arrived.
Under his Eye of True Sight, Qizai's Fish Jump Skill Level had finally broken through.
[Name: Koi Carp (Qizai)]
[Attribute: Water]
[Level: Ordinary Sixth Rank]
[Potential: Tier Nine]
[Skills: Fish Jump (Limit Breaker), Climbing Waterfall (Perfection)]
Qizai had finally broken through. Seeing this, Li Qian smiled with satisfaction.
Over the next half a month, Li Qian had Qizai consolidate its Skill Level and get its body into peak condition.
Although all the conditions were now met, Li Qian didn't submit the task right away, nor did he have Qizai evolve immediately.
It wasn't because there were less than two months left until graduation.
Rather, he wanted to see if he could discover the Koi Carp's second evolutionary path.
Unfortunately, after a month, the task progress had only increased from 105% to 108%. The progress was not significant.
After some thought, Li Qian decided to wait a little longer.
That was what Li Qian thought, but plans can't keep up with changes.
That evening, Li Qian was stopped by his parents just as he returned home from training.
"You should stop going out to train at night for a while," his mother, Han Yuqing, said with a frown.
Li Qian scratched his head, confused. "Why? What's wrong?"
Han Yuqing looked at Li Qian and relayed the information she had. "I ran into Master Gao today. She told me there seem to be traces of Cultist activity in Lingshui City recently, and she warned me to be careful on my way to and from work."
"That's right. Your training can wait; there's no rush," his father, Li Chengyang, chimed in.
Hearing this, Li Qian's heart skipped a beat.
'Cultists?'
'Could it be the Black Divine Teachings?'
'If it really is the Black Divine Teachings, could it be related to the Sparrow-tailed Fish?'
"Okay. From now until graduation, I'll only train outside on weekend days. I won't go out at night anymore," Li Qian wisely chose to comply.
Regardless of whether it was the Black Divine Teachings or not, it was best to be cautious with matters like this.
After reassuring his parents, Li Qian returned to his room. At the same time, he had already made a decision in his heart.
'I can't wait any longer. Qizai has to evolve immediately. I need some power to protect myself.'
Li Qian was not one to procrastinate. Having made his decision, he submitted the task that very night while lying in bed.
At the same time, the very instant he submitted the task, a stream of information suddenly flooded into his mind.
As he absorbed this information, all the details of how a Koi Carp evolves into a Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragon became crystal clear.
[Koi Carp Evolution Method, Evolutionary Form: Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragon]
[Step One: Train the Koi Carp's Fish Jump Skill Level to the Breakthrough Level.]
[Step Two: Train the Koi Carp to master the Climbing Waterfall Skill and raise it to the Perfection Level.]
[Step Three: Find a waterfall with a drop of over 100 meters.]
[Step Four: Purchase one kilogram of Dragon Bone Powder and have the Koi Carp consume it.]
[Step Five: Have the Koi Carp, after consuming the Dragon Bone Powder, use its Perfection Level Climbing Waterfall Skill to climb the waterfall with a drop of over 100 meters.]
[Step Six: When the Koi Carp reaches the top of the waterfall, have it use its Breakthrough Level Fish Jump Skill to leap into mid-air.]
[Step Seven: The Koi Carp, having leaped into mid-air, will begin to evolve. At this moment, throw out the Wind Chime Fruit. The Koi Carp must catch and consume the Wind Chime Fruit in mid-air to complete the evolution.]
[Note: Failure to reach the top of the waterfall will result in the evolution failing.]
Lying in bed and familiarizing himself with this evolution information, Li Qian couldn't help but let out a long sigh.
'If it weren't for the information infusion after submitting the task, if I really had to figure out these details on my own... I don't know how many times I would have had to experiment and fail.'
No wonder so many Breeders had studied it for so long without any results.
Just as Li Qian was about to see if he could establish another research task, a notification from the task panel once again shot into his mind.
[Task submission successful. Obtained 9 Achievement Points. Current Achievement Points: 9.]
'Achievement Points?'
'What is this stuff?'
'What's it for?'
Just as Li Qian was feeling puzzled, information about Achievement Points mystically followed, pouring into his mind.
These Achievement Points could, surprisingly, supplement task progress at a one-to-one ratio.
In other words, if he invested all 9 Achievement Points into a single research task, he could instantly take a task from 91% progress to 100%.
At the same time, the method for obtaining Achievement Points also surfaced in his mind.
Achievement Points are obtained from submitted tasks; the higher the task completion percentage, the more Achievement Points are awarded.
If the completion was just 100%, he would only get one Achievement Point.
For every percentage point over 100%, he would receive one additional Achievement Point.
After understanding this information, Li Qian realized where the 9 Achievement Points he had just received came from.
Thinking of this, he didn't hesitate and created another research task.
[Research Task: The Koi Carp's Second Evolution Method]
[Current Task Progress: 80%]
Seeing the task progress, Li Qian couldn't help but sigh.
'Splitting one task into two like this is really a raw deal for me.'
'Even if I complete it, I'll only get one Achievement Point.'
It couldn't compare to the previous task at all.