Divine Beast Creator
Chapter 351 Fishing by the Creek_1

Chapter 351: Chapter 351 Fishing by the Creek_1

She ran her hand through her long hair and Yao Yin smiled, saying

"I’d rather you call me by my name, Yao Yin."

"Seems like we’re not enemies then~"

Dou Yanlan said to Yao Yin with a smile, a sweet smile on her face as she tidied her long hair, and then Yao Yin responded with a beaming smile,

"What makes you think I was an enemy?"

"If there’s nothing wrong, why would Agunas be watching you?"

Yao Yin turned her head to see Agunas floating behind her, perusing a book in its hands, and said with a touch of confusion,

"You mean Little Crocodile? It doesn’t seem to be watching me though?"

"Its gaze has already proven it."

Dou Yanlan didn’t elaborate further, since she often interacted with Agunas, she naturally understood the difference between how Agunas usually looked at Feng Yuan and its gaze now. Noticing that Dou Yanlan seemed to be gauging Yao Yin, Qi Chen thought about stepping forward to say something but then decided to remain still after some consideration.

After a while, Dou Yanlan seemed to have a realization and said,

"It seems the problem isn’t with you after all. Let it go, he knows more about this sort of thing than I do. Come on, we should get going or he’ll start to worry."

With a displeased face, Yao Yin hugged her fluffy snow-white coat to her and rubbed her face against it before quickly walking away. Qi Chen, sounding a bit puzzled, whispered,

"Does she have a problem?"

"She is from ’outside,’ but it seems he’s not very worried about her causing any damage."

Becoming more vigilant after the incident with Odinis and as the issue of Outsiders gradually became more known, Qi Chen skeptically watched in the direction in which Yao Yin had gone and said,

"Is it really okay?"

Dou Yanlan chuckled and said,

"With Agunas following her, if anything unexpected happens, the impact should not be too great. I just asked to make sure that she isn’t deceiving him."

Seeing Qi Chen’s confusion, Dou Yanlan smoothed her hair and explained,

"Even though he appears indifferent, he really does care about friends. If she harbors ill intentions..."

Hearing Dou Yanlan’s concerns, Qi Chen’s expression darkened. Having spent more time with Feng Yuan than Dou Yanlan, he knew too well the potential impact on Feng Yuan if her suspicions were true. Seeing Qi Chen’s nervous expression, Dou Yanlan smiled and added,

"Don’t worry, the earlier probe might not have cleared up everything, but I’m sure she wouldn’t do such a thing."

"Although I don’t know the specifics of her status in her original world, people of her status definitely wouldn’t stoop to doing such things."

Relieved by Dou Yanlan’s words, Qi Chen felt somewhat reassured. If needed, he would warn Feng Yuan privately.

"Come on, let’s go before he really starts to get anxious."

Gentle hands stroking Cotton’s fur, Dou Yanlan smiled as she walked in the direction that Yao Yin had taken.

"What took you so long? Here, your breakfast has arrived."

On the shallow banks of Cotton Creek, a row of tables with sun umbrellas was set up, Feng Yuan gestured with his chin towards a nearby table, which was set with two beautifully prepared meals.

"Ah Mu and Cotton’s are over there, and the bigger plate is Ah Mu’s food."

Feng Yuan glanced at the fishing rod standing beside him to make sure there was no fish on the hook, then pointed to another table and said, at this time there weren’t many tourists fishing at Cotton Creek, so Feng Yuan occupying a few tables didn’t bother anyone.

Dou Yanlan, seeing Feng Yuan’s fishing rod, seemed to remember something and tugged at Qi Chen, saying,

"Let’s go put down a fishing rod first, then we can eat."

"Huh?"

"Fish won’t bite that quickly, especially since this is a special fishing spot at Cotton Orchid Manor."

"What about this place?"

Seeing Qi Chen’s confusion, Feng Yuan spoke up,

"Fishing in Cotton Creek is just a pastime for visitors; not everyone likes to play with the Spirit Beasts from the Cotton series. This fishing spot has been around for quite a while, and the easy-to-catch fish have long been depleted. The remaining fish are the crafty ones."

"It’s normal not to catch a single fish in a day."

"Wouldn’t that be rather boring?"

Qi Chen found it hard to understand as Feng Yuan lay on the chair, his gaze occasionally drifting to the fishing rod as he said

"I’ve said it’s just to kill some time. Honestly, after starting at the academy, it’ll be much harder to find time to fish with you guys like we are now."

"Hong Zhi has been so busy catching up on his classes because he used to come to me all the time, especially since the difficulty of training a Spirit Beast increases after reaching the Common Level."

Seeing Qi Chen’s gaze shift toward Ah Mu, Feng Yuan stirred Xiao Ji’s tuft of hair absentmindedly as he said

"In fact, if you wanted to train now, Ah Mu would have a lot to do, like learning new killer moves, improving control over them, and such. It’s not that easy."

"Of course, there’s no need to rush right now, because after you graduate, you’ll need to prepare to contract a second Spirit Beast, right?"

Seeing Qi Chen nod, Feng Yuan said

"Choosing and training your second Spirit Beast will take up even more of your time, so aside from those powerful Beastmasters, ordinary people typically only have one or two Spirit Beasts. Any more than that and they can’t take care of them properly."

Glancing at the leisurely Feng Yuan, and then at the four Spirit Beasts beside him, Qi Chen said in an exasperated tone

"How come I don’t feel that way?"

Seeing this, Dou Yanlan couldn’t help but cover her mouth and giggle as she said

"His situation is quite special. Xiao Ji is completely free-range, and for the Dreaming Dragon Baby, well, I’m not quite sure what’s going on, but it seems like Najia is taking care of it. As for Big Cat... Even though the dumb owl has a big reputation, I don’t think it would have survived in the city for so long if it couldn’t take care of itself."

"So if you want to be as leisurely as me, you could let Ah Mu learn from Najia to help you take care of your second Spirit Beast; otherwise, you’ll end up like Hong Zhi, spending quite a bit of time every day taking care of Xiao Hui and Big Black."

Seeing Ah Mu grab a fishing rod and imitate Dou Yanlan’s movements, baiting the hook and casting it before standing by the bank, Qi Chen felt inexplicably tempted. Dou Yanlan petted Cotton as she said

"Looks like I’ll need to find a second Spirit Beast that can care for itself."

Feng Yuan looked over at Dou Yanlan with curiosity and said

"Aren’t Spirit Beasts chosen by fate?"

"Even if there is fate, if you don’t pursue it actively, you will end up with fate but without the Beast."

Hearing Dou Yanlan’s meaningful words, Feng Yuan looked towards Qi Chen with a mischievous grin, only to find Qi Chen was completely engrossed in a conversation with Ah Mu and hadn’t noticed Feng Yuan’s strange gaze at all.

"You don’t have to do anything yourself; this will be a test for him," Dou Yanlan warned, guessing what Feng Yuan was up to. Scratching his head, Feng Yuan lay back down on the chair, holding Xiao Ji like a plush toy, his gaze occasionally returning to the rod standing by the bank.

Yao Yin tried mimicking Dou Yanlan’s actions and after trying for a bit, she walked over and asked

"Is there something special about this bait?"

"No."

"Then why did you take so long to choose just now?"

"Just picking one that looks good."

Looking up at Yao Yin, Dou Yanlan shook her head and said

"Don’t overthink it. Fishing, as he said, is just an activity for relaxation; it doesn’t matter whether you catch anything or not."

Puzzled, Yao Yin casually put some bait on her hook, cast the line out, and then positioned the fishing rod by the bank.

"Let’s play cards~"

After waiting for a long time without any fish biting, Feng Yuan pulled out a deck of cards and suggested. Glancing at Feng Yuan, Qi Chen said with a hint of resignation

"You’ve been looking forward to this for a long time, haven’t you?"

"I remember you’ve whipped out that deck of cards many times."

"Not at all! This one’s new! Look, it hasn’t even been opened!"

After a brief look at Feng Yuan, Qi Chen said with mild annoyance

"Where on earth do you get these cards from? We’ve never heard of them, yet you always have new ones."

Yao Yin took the deck from Feng Yuan, tore open the packaging, and inspected them for a moment before saying with some confusion

"These look like they have descriptions of something called ’Star Ocean’? How exactly do we play this?"

Feng Yuan took the cards back from Yao Yin, selected a few, and began to slowly explain. After a while, Yao Yin and Dou Yanlan both indicated that they had understood the rules, but Qi Chen scratched his head, still a bit confused. Seeing this, Feng Yuan said somewhat helplessly

"Let’s just play and explain as we go, Agunas, you help teach Qi Chen."