Monster Pet Evolution

"Brother Qian, what kind of background does that Gao guy have?" asked someone at the dining table curiously.

"I'm not sure." By then, Qian Zhengming had already changed into a new set of clothes and gone back to his room to take a shower. After all, lying down on the bathroom floor hadn't been a comfortable experience.

"So arrogant. Brother Qian merely spoke a little louder, and he started getting physical first just because he was strong." The person next to Qian Zhengming felt indignant for him.

"Okay, it's all right. This matter is already over," said Qian Zhengming with a little smile.

"Brother Qian, you treat us to dinner so often. Shall we find a day after school to teach him a lesson?"

"This is already a matter of the past. I'm grateful that you guys are willing to help me, but we've already settled this matter between ourselves," said Qian Zhengming lightly, as though this was simply an insignificant matter.

"That Gao Peng normally does everything on his own, and we never see him make contact with anyone. He's a weirdo."

"That means you don't understand. Gao Peng is from Chang'an!"

"He's from Chang'an?" Qian Zhengming was stunned.

"That's right, he was the first in Chang'an for the Monster Trainer College Exams, and eleventh for the Huaxia regional competition," said a Monster Trainer student who had taken note of the exams and knew Gao Peng's results.

"Then doesn't that mean that he qualified for the World Youth Trainer Championship?" asked a student curiously.

"Your information is outdated. For some reason, he dropped out of the competition a long time ago."

"That's a real pity," said someone gloatingly, his words filled with sarcasm.

The others joined in and laughed.

Qian Zhengming sat at his spot, quietly listening to the discussion, seemingly indifferent to what was being discussed.

He felt that it was a good thing that this had happened to him. After this incident, he had become more mature. If not for Gao Peng, he would probably still have been just like he was before, egotistical and arrogant.

Qian Zhengming's phone suddenly rang. He picked up the phone. "Hello, Dad. Mm, I'm near school. You've already reached the school?" Qian Zhengming said in surprise. He hadn't expected his dad to arrive so soon.

Then, Qian Zhengming's expression changed. He apologized to the rest, "I have something going on, so I'll leave first. Enjoy your meal."

With that, he hurriedly pushed open the door and left the private room.

"Little Peng, the Wanzai Moon Gold has arrived." This time, Old Man Ji didn't have Gao Peng guess the item.

Evidently, Gao Peng's quick wit had left him with an extremely strong impression.

"This material is for Dumby, right?" Old Man Ji asked out of curiosity.

After all, Yin-attribute materials were rare and seldom used in experimental processes.

"That's right. I'm preparing to have Dumby promoted to Legendary grade," said Gao Peng as he received the box containing the material.

Gao Peng had already restored Dumby's grade to Epic a month before.

After all, Dumby had already reached Epic grade before, so the materials needed to restore his grade were relatively simpler to obtain.

For Dumby's next evolution, the steps required were completely different from the previous evolution. One could even say that they proceeded in two different directions altogether.

The gloomy forest was located at the bottom of the mountain range, with a quiet lake behind it.

In a wide empty patch in the middle of the forest, Gao Peng was bent over, placing the bones of ghouls on the ground. The arrangement of the bones followed a strict ratio and placement pattern, just like he was creating a summoning circle for a ritual.

"Here, and here..." Gao Peng mumbled to himself, as the brush in his hand drew an outline on the dry soil. A blood red liquid seeped into the loose soil.

Under the dim moonlight, the marks left behind by the liquid created multiple pitch-black lines.

Long before the procedure that day, Gao Peng had already practiced dozens of times. He was only missing the material for the last step, while all the other earlier steps had already been practiced by Gao Peng.

After a whole half hour of preparation, an altar that was designed in a sinister and weird style appeared on the ground.

Along the sides of the altar, rows of white bones were sticking out of the ground, making the scene look like a cult ritual.

"Dumby, carefully walk to the center of the altar," Gao Peng instructed Dumby.

Without a hint of hesitation, Dumby walked in with large steps. As he stepped to the center of the altar, the ground suddenly caved in, like quicksand. This was an extremely bizarre scene, as even though the ground was loose, it was definitely nowhere near quicksand.

At that moment, the altar seemed to come to life. Each individual bone around the altar ignited with a ghostly white flame.

"Now is the time." Gao Peng drew in a deep breath, opened the box, and took out the Wanzai Moon Gold from within.

This was a strange piece of gold, no larger than the size of a fist, and it was covered in random patterns.

On the surface of the gold was a small depression that was filled with something that looked like green copper rust.

The moment the Wanzai Moon Gold left the box, the activated altar began to produce a whiny low hum. Under the quiet night sky, deep and disorderly sounding whispers filled the air.

Gao Peng took two steps forward, and his body began to produce a strange glow. Evidently, he was under attack from an unknown source of energy, and the damage was currently all being transferred to Dumby.

The energy of this attack posed no threat to Dumby.

Gao Peng had Dumby open his mouth, then placed the Wanzai Moon Gold in his mouth.

Dumby continued to sink, until finally his entire body was buried under the soil. All that was left behind was a small lump of earth.

The soil within the altar continually released balls of white light that travelled outwards. The strange white lights continued to spread until they became mere specks of light in the air.

As the white lights increased in number, the rate that they moved outwards increased in speed, and the area covered by the white lights expanded as well.

From afar, the patch of earth seemed to have caught fire, becoming extremely eye-catching in the dark of the night.

In the white flames, the blurred forms of shadows seemed to appear.

Gao Peng blinked and took a second look. There were, indeed, shadows. The shadows were semi-transparent and each of their shapes was unique.

The shadows seemed to have their own simple forms of consciousness, for they floated within the flames in a random manner.

This whole process lasted for half an hour. Then the flames started to recede back towards the center. Or rather, instead of receding, the altar simply stopped releasing balls of white light.

Finally, the area became silent again.

In the quiet and dark night, under the glow of the moonlight, the white bones refracted a muted glow.

Sha—

A black and burly skeleton palm stretched out from the earth. The thick bone joints looked like they were filled with power.

Following that, another palm reached out from under the ground.

Then an entire gigantic body slowly rose from the ground.

The figure of an ape was already similar to a human. If one were to say that the figure of the Skull Ghoul Ape was similar to that of an ape, then the evolved form of Dumby was more similar to that of a human. The only difference were the two arms, which were longer and thicker than those of a human.

At its shoulders, two thick and curved bones extended out diagonally backwards from the edges of the shoulder bones, looking like a ring that wasn't fully closed yet.

The colour of the bones had changed from silvery gray to a scary, pitch-black color. Instead of growing in size, Dumby had shrunk a little, and was only around thirteen feet tall now.

The number of ribs in Dumby's chest had increased from 10 to 36, becoming more tightly packed. In the chest cavity, a heart made out of strands of blood beat rapidly.

The eye sockets burned with white flames.

Lowering his head, Dumby slowly opened his right hand. A ball of white flames slowly rose from his palm.

With a sudden swish of his arm, the flame on his palm entered the earth beneath his feet.

The ground began to rumble. A white skull burrowed out of the ground, until finally a skeleton wolf that was a yard tall and two yards long emerged.

The eye sockets of the skeleton wolf also had white flames. It obediently crawled to Dumby's feet and bent its knees, prostrating in front of Dumby.

In front of Gao Peng's eyes, a row of words flashed.

Evolution Success—[Skeleton Tyrant]