A small figure, entirely goose-yellow, had faint green patterns on its back.
"It's a silkworm baby!"
"I actually ran into a wild spirit in the suburbs!"
The silkworm baby, which had sneaked out to rest while Su Hao was reciting from memory, was startled by the sudden appearance of a stranger. Its soft body arched slightly, and with a *swoosh*, it darted into the grass.
Gu Lingyao stared at the swaying bushes, dazed for a moment.
"Umu?" Little Spring Spirit reminded her.
"Oh, right! Little Spring Spirit, let's chase it!"
A few minutes later...
"What do we do, Little Spring Spirit? I think we're lost."
Gu Lingyao hugged her schoolbag, glanced at the woods on the left, then observed the bushes on the right for a moment, sinking into thought.
Until—
Little Spring Spirit tugged at her pant leg and pointed back the way they came. "Umu~ Umu~"
Gu Lingyao turned to look, stared for a long moment, and tilted her head.
"Umu!"
"Huh? You left markers? That's great, Little Spring Spirit!"
"Umu~"
Little Spring Spirit gave a weary but polite smile.
Gu Lingyao perked up again, and then she saw the bushes not far away rustle as a spirit taller than her burst out. Her expression immediately tensed.
...
"Huh? It's just a human."
The girl's face clearly relaxed.
Su Hao was covered in black lines.
Only then did Gu Lingyao notice that beside the boy, who was about her age, followed a goose-yellow spirit—the very silkworm baby she had lost track of earlier.
Her face flushed red.
*Gu Lingyao, Gu Lingyao, how can you be so clumsy? At least no one knows, right...?*
The girl's expression shifted like a Beijing opera mask, so Su Hao had to break the awkwardness:
"Hi, you're a new spirit tamer too, right?"
"Oh, ah, yes, I'm Gu Lingyao, a student from No. 1 Middle School. You're the silkworm baby's tamer, right? Your silkworm baby is so fast..."
She thought back to how the silkworm baby had instantly left her in the dust, and her face reddened again.
Su Hao was puzzled. *Why does this girl keep blushing?*
Could it be...
Because he was too handsome?!
Just as he was about to say something polite, he suddenly saw Gu Lingyao crouch down and stick her head close to the silkworm baby.
*Stare—*
"Guno~!"
The silkworm baby took a tactical retreat.
"Your silkworm baby is so well-trained!"
With a registered spirit trainer at home, Gu Lingyao couldn't quite articulate what made the silkworm baby special, but her intuition told her it looked different somehow.
It had completely lost her, after all!
Su Hao, whose status was lower than the silkworm baby's, could only awkwardly touch his hair, his gaze falling on the water-blue spirit.
Little Spring Spirit.
Its evolution path was Spring Spirit, Tide-Calling Spring Spirit.
Though a water type, it was a rare spirit—possibly rarer than the Charcoal Fire Turtle—and Su Hao hadn't seen one at the Cloudhua City Spirit Free-Range Center.
The Tide-Calling Spring Spirit was an elemental spirit capable of learning a high-level move called "Elemental Body," which was incredibly powerful with extremely high potential.
Not something just anyone could get their hands on!
Su Hao opened his panel.
The basic data of the Little Spring Spirit appeared in his eyes.
One line read: *A spirit composed of water currents, with no feet below its skirt. It moves by flowing water, sometimes leaving traces of moisture in its wake.*
But Gu Lingyao's Little Spring Spirit didn't.
The leaves it passed over were merely pressed down, not wet.
That was a sign of control.
Su Hao felt this was no ordinary Little Spring Spirit.
Gu Lingyao wanted to poke the silkworm baby but didn't dare.
Little Spring Spirit turned away, heartbroken.
"Su Hao, are you training your spirit here too?" she asked.
Just then, the silkworm baby, unable to bear Gu Lingyao's face getting closer, *swooshed* up onto a tree branch. Its nimble movements made Gu Lingyao's eyes light up.
"Yeah, I'm training the silkworm baby's agility."
"I'm training at East Lake Mountain too. I'm working on Little Spring Spirit's ability to compress water currents. Once its spiritual power and compression are sufficient, it can learn the move 'Water Arrow.'"
Su Hao was a bit surprised.
*So this is what it's like for a spirit-taming family with money and background?* Compared to that, Liu Ren, who spammed the group chat every day with "What my Charcoal Fire Turtle ate today," was just plain vulgar.
It had nothing to do with jealousy or envy!
Thinking of Water Arrow, Su Hao remembered that the silkworm baby's agility training had hit a plateau. Tree-circling drills were becoming less effective, and he couldn't afford high-end training facilities...
But wasn't Little Spring Spirit practicing water jets?
Besides power and compression, accuracy was key.
Why not...
Find a tool spirit.
*Ah, scratch that,* train together.
Su Hao pitched the idea, and Gu Lingyao agreed without a second thought. "Sure, sure! Right, Little Spring Spirit?"
"Umu~~"
Little Spring Spirit reluctantly complied. *Now you remember me?*
...
They moved to the edge of the woods, near the lake.
The area had some vegetation and was close to water, making it a favorable environment for both the silkworm baby and Little Spring Spirit.
Su Hao pointed to three dense trees by the lake and said sternly to the silkworm baby, "For optimal training, you must stay within the range of these three trees... uh, on the trees, dodging the water jets. Got it?"
"Guno—"
The silkworm baby stared at him with big, watery eyes.
"No way, no chance, don't even think about it."
"Guno~~"
It reluctantly crawled up the tree trunk, feeling that its silkworm life was hopeless.
*I thought I was escaping the demon tamer's torment, meeting a fellow spirit friend—double the happiness. So why has it turned out like this?*
*Huh? Little Spring Spirit, what's with that look?*
*I thought we were friends, but you want to hit me?!*
The two spirits locked eyes, a heavy atmosphere spreading.
Su Hao and Gu Lingyao both grew a little tense.
"Guno!"
"Umu!"
The two spirits let out cute, fierce cries, and the tension instantly dissolved.
Little Spring Spirit called out a few times, gathered water currents, its mouth puffing up like a high-pressure water gun as it shot out a pure white water jet.
"Guno!!"
The jet was too fast, catching the little one off guard. It curled up in fear and closed its eyes.
Su Hao: "..."
*Embarrassing. Get out of the battlefield!*
But before he could say it, the water jet hit a branch about an arm's length away from the silkworm baby, shaking it violently, with only a few droplets splashing onto the silkworm baby.
It shivered.
Su Hao coughed dryly, and the silkworm baby cautiously opened one eye.
Gu Lingyao's face reddened. "Little Spring Spirit—"
"Umu?"
Little Spring Spirit, still spraying water nonstop, froze.
*Oh, I missed.*
After a ten-minute break (and scolding), the two spirits locked eyes again.
Little Spring Spirit sacrificed some power for accuracy, and a water jet shot straight at the silkworm baby on the branch.
This time, though still a bit flustered, the silkworm baby used its little legs to sprint away, running across the branch as if on flat ground.
A water jet flew past behind it.
The silkworm baby let out a triumphant cry.
Little Spring Spirit got angry. It stopped gathering water and spat out thin streams of water one after another, almost powerless but fast, scaring the silkworm baby into instinctively leaping, flipping nimbly in the air, and landing on another tree.
Its eight little legs gripped the branch firmly.
"Guno?"
It seemed surprised at its own agility and let out a couple more provocative cries.
By the water's edge, Little Spring Spirit's water jets grew faster and faster.
On the branches, the silkworm baby dodged more and more freely.
It didn't forget to taunt with a few cries.
Little Spring Spirit's face puffed up in anger—though it was already puffy.
Spirits like Little Spring Spirit naturally had far more spiritual power than silkworm babies, and with the lake as a water source, the jets didn't drain much energy.
But even so, it couldn't keep firing like a water gun for dozens of shots.
And the key was—none of them hit!
Little Spring Spirit was both furious and exhausted!
It held its breath, firing jets until its spiritual power ran out, then wobbled dizzily, collapsed with a *splat*, sending up droplets of water.
(?◎△◎?)〃
Little Spring Spirit lost the ability to fight. The silkworm baby won the training bout.
"Guno~!"
The silkworm baby let out a roar, swaying on the branch.
As the victor, the silkworm baby's... tamer was in the spotlight.
Gu Lingyao clearly hadn't expected that her Little Spring Spirit, after over ten days of water-jet training, hadn't landed a single hit.
*Guess we need to keep training!*
"Hear that? Keep training." Su Hao poked the silkworm baby's soft body and exchanged some training insights with Gu Lingyao.
Like: If it doesn't kill them, train them to death.
And spirits? Their stress tolerance was way higher than humans'.
The silkworm baby, basking in its victory, rolled its eyes.
*Hmph, lousy tamer!*