Monster Pet Evolution
chapter-352

A familiar only needed to be fed huge quantities of elemental stones of the same element in order to return to a certain grade that it had fallen from after reaching a new tier.

The Thunder Shell Lord was Epic-grade when it was still a Commander-tier familiar. When it reached Lord-tier, it had fallen back to Perfect-grade. In the past few months, it had been gobbling up Electric-type elemental stones in order to return to Epic-grade. With the Stone of Thor, it was able to make the leap to Legendary-grade.

"When I used the Stone of Thor on the Thunder Shell Lord, it instantly became Legendary-grade," said Ji Hanwu when he set the dishes on the table.

Then he sighed as he looked at his grandson admiringly. He opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it.

He patted Gao Peng's shoulder and said, "Walk this path well, Gao Peng. I know you can go far on it."

In truth, his grandson had given him quite a surprise.

As far as he knew, Gao Peng already had some of his familiars in the Legendary grade. To top it all off, he had even helped his Thunder Shell Lord reach Legendary-grade as well.

Raising a familiar that reached Legendary-grade was a highly improbable task, and still, Gao Peng had achieved the impossible.

Ji Hanwu had a sneaking suspicion that Gao Peng had surpassed even him. However, he didn't ask his grandson how he had done it.

Everyone had their own secrets. There was no need to pry.

"Grandpa, do you still remember the Golden Hands I told you about?" asked Gao Peng.

"Is something wrong? Are they still giving you trouble?" said Ji Hanwu, narrowing his eyes.

"Well, they came to see me when I was in Yang Cheng City," said Gao Peng with a smile. "One of them even shot me in the head with a Barrett sniper rifle. It hurt like hell."

Ji Hanwu closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. He remained silent for a long while. "Where is he now?"

"I sent him to meet his maker."

"Lucky him. Go take a rest and try not to think about any of this."

"No can do. The Golden Hands were kind enough to come all the way to see me. I can't let such kindness go unrewarded," said Gao Peng while shaking his head.

"Hmm..." Ji Hanwu simply nodded. "Just go rest."

"I'll be spending the night with Stripey. I won't be sleeping at home tonight," said Gao Peng. He then took a tent from the storage room and rushed out the door, but not before waving goodbye to his grandfather.

After hearing the door shut behind him, Ji Hanwu wiped his fingers with a wet wipe and moved to the sofa, where he looked out of the window and gazed at the night sky.

Bloodlust was brewing inside of him...

Gao Peng began walking up a small mountain path behind the manor. When he finally reached the peak, he could see a slightly smaller mountain not too far away.

The earth began shaking beneath his feet. Then the smaller mountain began to rise before him.

Stripey excitedly approached Gao Peng.

"Gao Peng, Gao Peng, you came to see me," it gushed.

Gao Peng felt a pang of guilt seeing Stripey all by itself due to how big it had grown.

"Yes, I've come to see you again. I'm going to spend the night here with you," said Gao Peng, smiling.

"That's great," said Stripey. He hadn't felt that happy in such a long time.

It laid on the ground and looked at Gao Peng until he finally went to sleep. It stayed by his side until the early morning light hit the mountain peak.

"Do you still remember the story 'Journey to the West'?"

"Yes, I remember," replied Stripey, blinking its huge red eyes innocently.

"Do you remember those monsters in the story that are capable of changing their sizes as they please? As long as you continue on your evolutionary path, there will come a day when you'll be able to shrink yourself down. When that happens, you'll be able to travel alongside me once more," said Gao Peng.

Stripey's eyes lit up.

When Gao Peng left, Stripey assumed a stance and extended its earthy-colored feelers into the ground, where it began madly sucking up all the energy in the ground.

I, Stripey, will continue leveling myself up! Once I attain the ability to shrink myself, I'll be able to play with Gao Peng every day! swore Stripey silently.

...

A private airplane from Yuzhou landed in Jiangnan's airport.

The plane's rear door opened. Dumby bent forward slightly and stepped out of it. A prayer beaded Goldie, Flamy, and Da Zi came out after it.

As soon as Gao Peng stepped out of the plane, the first thing he noticed was how different Jiangnan's airport seemed from the one in Yuzhou.

Jiangnan's airport seemed far more exquisite, at least in terms of architecture.

When they exited the airport, Gao Peng led Da Zi and the others to the Southern Sky Group's Jiangnan branch.

Basically, the Southern Sky Group had a branch in all the major southern base cities, including Jiangnan.

After resting for a while, Gao Peng tapped into the Jiangnan branch's information network in order to get a better handle of the state of the swamp on the western side of the city.

It took two days to gather all the information that Gao Peng requested from his subordinates.

He Wei was the name of Jiangnan's mayor. Compared to the mayors of other base cities, he was still quite young, no older than 40 years old.

As of now, there were twelve Lord-tier trainers in Jiangnan: three working in an official capacity, two in the army, five from the top four families (Zhao, Qian, Sun, Li) in the region, and the remaining two, who were independent trainers.

Even though the base city of Jiangnan had more Lord-tier trainers than any other city in the entire Huaxia region, only the base cities of Di Du and Mo Du surpassed it in that respect.

This was because the base city of Jiangnan had been the Huaxia region's economic center even before the Cataclysm. It boasted a large population and fast-paced development. The wetlands and forests around it were practically stripped clean by the city's inhabitants.

A wide variety of animals and plantlife thrived in the Jiangnan region's tropical environment. The fact that the Jiangnan base city was one of the few cities who had suffered little damage during the Cataclysm had also contributed to the base city's further development.

The three official Lord-tier trainers in Jiangnan were Mayor He Wei, Finance Minister Bai Liuguang and Treasurer Li Changmin. The city's smaller companies were constantly kept on their toes by these three.

Among the four major families in the city, two Lord-tier trainers were from the Qian family.

One of the remaining two independent trainers had joined the Monster Trainer League, while the other had formed their own monster trainer guild that allowed its members to help each other out in their training routines and such.

In other words, no Lord-tier trainer in Jiangnan was truly alone. Each of them were influential in their own way. Even a trainer without any influence could slowly build it from the ground up. Instead of training by themselves, these trainers could become even stronger at a faster rate with the help of others.

The information that Gao Peng had requested concerned native crane-type monsters, crocodile-type monsters, and the swamp in general.

There were a number of crane-type monsters living in the region. However, judging from the pictures he had seen, Gao Peng could tell that they weren't from the same species as Flamy. He had even asked Flamy for confirmation.

Could it be that Flamy's entire species had been annihilated by the attack last year?

Gao Peng frowned. It seemed almost impossible.

One of them must have survived the tragedy. The thought of a flightless species driving a species that could fly to extinction was just preposterous.