Qin Shou glanced at the envious Long Xia and said, "Instead of being envious, why don't you work harder on your cultivation? Spending all day digging for gossip—how should I put this—you really amaze me!"
Long Xia gave him a strange look. "Lao Qin, if I recall correctly, your Star Power level is even lower than mine. Have you really been working hard?"
Qin Shou remained composed and replied, "How about we change the subject?"
...
After a day of "dedicated" study, Qin Shou returned home, pondering Long Xia's words.
To upgrade his beast cultivation, aside from the daily feeding of beast food, there was another way: hunting monsters outside the city!
When beasts devour monsters, they experience significant growth—much faster than eating beast food.
However, monsters roam freely outside the city, and the Federation has regulations: martial artists below Newborn Seven Stars are prohibited from hunting monsters outside the city.
Unless they possess a Dangerous Seven Star-level beast or a powerful mecha.
He wouldn't dare dream of having a mecha, but a Dangerous Seven Star-level beast—that he could manage.
With this in mind, Qin Shou opened the gene supermarket on his computer and began browsing for dangerous-level beast genes.
The gene supermarket offered beast genes up to Dangerous Six Star-level at most. They were expensive, but Qin Shou still spent some time carefully selecting.
[Savage Bullhorn Beast: Dangerous Six-Star Monster, price 1,000 Federation Coins.]
[Seven-Colored Deer: Dangerous Five-Star Monster, price 800 Federation Coins.]
[Swamp Giant Crocodile: Dangerous Six-Star Monster, price 1,200 Federation Coins.]
[Deep Sea Monster Fish: Dangerous Five-Star Monster, price 1,000 Federation Coins.]
...
Looking at these prices, Qin Shou felt a chill in his heart.
His parents together only earn 2,000 Federation Coins a month.
He calculated that to gather the beast genes he wanted, he would need at least 10,000 Federation Coins.
If he had that kind of money, he would've already treated himself to a spa trip… Ahem.
After thinking long and hard, Qin Shou summoned the system, glanced at the ordinary gene library, and decided to create an ornamental Water Crystal Dragon to sell online and see if he could make some money.
Why a Water Crystal Dragon?
Without an anti-gravity device, it couldn't fly and could only swim in water.
On the interface, Qin Shou skillfully manipulated the ordinary gene model and quickly constructed a dragon-shaped creature.
Staring at the dragon-shaped creature shown on the interface, Qin Shou stroked his chin, feeling like something was missing.
Ah, to make it more appealing, it needs bits of something shiny.
Shiny bits...
Qin Shou glanced up at the sparkling chandelier on the living room ceiling, feeling tempted, but quickly shook his head.
No way—taking it down could lead to serious consequences...
But maybe just a small piece?
Seizing the moment while no one was around, Qin Shou began simulating the current greedy snake's dragon-shaped body, condensing dragon-shaped Star Power.
Perhaps due to the quality of system-generated material, Qin Shou quickly simulated dragon-shaped Star Power.
"Roar..."
His five fingers curled slightly, and a deep dragon roar suddenly erupted.
A two-meter-long dragon-shaped Star Power surged into the air, biting off a few crystal decorations from the chandelier and then returning to Qin Shou's side.
Dispelling the dragon-shaped Star Power, Qin Shou placed several crystal fragments onto the interface, carefully adjusted them, and initiated synthesis.
"Ding! Model successfully established. Synthesis requires 10 Synthesis Points. Begin synthesis?"
"Synthesize!"
A moment later, the model solidified bit by bit.
"Ding! Synthesis complete. The synthesized creature is a Dangerous One Star-level monster. Please name this creature!"
Qin Shou casually said, "Water Crystal Dragon."
"Ding! Name successfully registered. Data comparison underway..."
"Ding! The similarity between this creature and the existing Water Crystal Dragon is 0.001%. Similarity too low, no bonus awarded!"
Qin Shou shrugged indifferently. He summoned the Water Crystal Dragon from the interface; half a meter long, the Water Crystal Dragon coiled in his palm, obedient and adorable.
Without a base organism for fusion during synthesis, the resulting Water Crystal Dragon was still an infant.
Under the light, its radiant dragon body gleamed brilliantly, emitting specks of light like the most exquisite art piece.
No one could resist such a beautiful creature.
Despite its status as a Dangerous One Star creature with almost no combat capability.
Moreover, achieving such a perfect fusion of organism and industrial material—this level of gene technology was not something common Beast Tamers could master.
Even if someone could, they wouldn't casually create such decorative and impractical creatures.
Thus, this Water Crystal Dragon was likely one of a kind online!
After all, in any world, there's never a shortage of people with more money than they know how to spend.
...
Federal City 99, Fanxing City.
Mechanical Academy dormitory.
Bai Ke rested her chin in one hand, idly browsing the Beast Breeding Supermarket, her lips pouting and occasionally sighing.
Nan Xuewei emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a towel, drying her damp hair with another.
Noticing Bai Ke's expression, Nan Xuewei tilted her head and smiled. "What's up? Thinking about transferring to the Breeding Beast System to raise little monsters?"
Bai Ke looked up at her and replied, "No, Xuewei. I want to buy a cute and beautiful beast to keep me company during training—training is just way too dull."
Nan Xuewei chuckled, her gaze drifting to Bai Ke's computer screen. Her pretty eyes suddenly lit up.
"I think this dragon-shaped beast looks great—it's all sparkling and dazzling. It suits you." She pointed at the screen and smiled.
"Really?"
Bai Ke lowered her head to look at the screen, her fingers sliding lightly.
A video on the screen showed a glass tank lined with water plants and agates. Inside, a Water Crystal Dragon gleaming with starry sparkles swam freely under the dim lights, radiating an entrancing beauty.
[Water Crystal Dragon: The perfect fusion of industrial crystal and organic life, bringing you an unrivaled visual experience...]
"Industrial crystal fused with organic life—who on earth created this Water Crystal Dragon?"
Bai Ke's eyes glowed with admiration, though she was also somewhat shocked.
Creating dragon-shaped creatures wasn't overly challenging, but fusing crystal perfectly into a living organism—this was no ordinary feat.
Nan Xuewei also noticed the Water Crystal Dragon's description and looked visibly surprised.
"Biological-industrial crystal fusion—that holds significant research value. Yet someone simply listed it as a decorative pet in the supermarket? It must be an experimental product from an Advanced Beast Breeder."
"Bai Ke, hurry and buy it before someone else snags it."
Bai Ke snapped out of her daze and immediately placed an order without even glancing at the price.
...
Far away in West City, Unit 580.
In his room, Qin Shou had just uploaded the Water Crystal Dragon video to the Beast Breeding Supermarket. Minutes later, someone purchased it, leaving him momentarily dumbfounded.
When he came to his senses, he slapped his thigh in regret. "Selling the Water Crystal Dragon for 2,000 Federation Coins? I've suffered a colossal loss!"
That's right—a Water Crystal Dragon with no combat ability just sold for 2,000 Federation Coins.
Originally, he planned to wait for someone to haggle but underestimated rich folks.
Still, it didn't matter. He'd learn from this experience and be smarter next time.
Then Qin Shou checked the delivery address and sighed in relief.
"Thank goodness it's not free shipping. Otherwise, delivering it to Federal City 99 would cost more than the Water Crystal Dragon itself."
Qin Shou remarked joyfully.
...
Ten minutes later, the courier arrived to pick up the Water Crystal Dragon. In less than a day, the package traveled through a space station and reached the buyer.
Qin Shou received payment of 2,000 Federation Coins without any issues.
With the money in hand, he quickly bought the beast genes he needed.