The sun dipped low, casting amber light across the gently swaying herb grove. Mystic hovered just above the trees, her immense white form drifting lazily in the sky. Her four long, translucent fins moved in slow undulating patterns, golden lightning flickering lazily through her cloudlike body. Below, Fan Yumei squatted beside a patch of star-level leafroot, brow furrowed in concentration.
"Hey! Be delicate—these are money!" Jin Minhe grumbled, taking the herb from Fan Yumei's hands.
"I am being delicate," she insisted, but the root gave a soft crack under her fingers. "…That was just encouragement."
"You encouraged it to die," Jin Minhe replied without looking up. He was carefully guiding a tiny pulse of qi around a thin, silver-veined stalk, lifting it from the ground with all the precision of a surgeon.
Fan Yumei scowled. "I'm not yanking. I'm… guiding with firm motivation."
"Call it what you want," Jin muttered, "but your plant-pulling has heartache written all over it."
Even Lufei daintily stepped over with a neat bundle of herbs, her leafy horns glinting in the light. Maxius fluttered silently down, his wings barely rustling, and dropped a pristine herb bundle near her feet before vanishing again. Mystic trilled lazily from above, using her wind qi and tail to break the earth and the other two picking up the star plants uprooted, clearly amused.
Fan Yumei groaned. "Even my beasts are outperforming me."
"They have gentler instincts than you," Jin said. "Mystic doesn't even have hands, and she could probably do better with a gust of wind."
"I didn't expect betrayal from you too, Mystic," she muttered.
Mystic responded by tilting slightly and letting out a purring gust that tousled Yumei's hair.
Fan Yumei flopped back with a sigh, arms spread. "You know, I've really been thinking about that size adjustment skill your beast used."
Jin looked over, mildly curious. "For Mystic?"
She nodded. "She's a Leviathan-type sky beast. Not just rare—she's classified. Some restricted beastology texts mention them, and the netsphere is full of speculation. Some say she could grow to the size of a mountain or planet—they aren't sure."
"That's… not helpful."
"It gets better. She's already gone through one growth spurt. First time, she was inside the house and grew, denting the walls out, getting stuck in the ceiling. Second time, she broke the wall out and my mom scolded me for ten minutes." She crossed her arms, exhaling. "I've been giving her less high-energy food other than her beast food, which she only eats once a day currently, to slow her growth spurts until she learns to adjust her size."
Jin blinked slowly. "…You didn't think to lead with that?"
"I thought it was normal!" she said, throwing her hands up. "Then my dad and my Uncle Hanji nearly had a heart attack when her fins and body doubled that night while riding her in the house. We don't even know what her full size is."
"And you still let her indoors?"
"She had tried to sleep inside her egg when she first hatched—until she ate it. But sometimes she still tries to get inside to sleep with us. Mostly she sleeps outdoors on her clouds," Yumei said, her voice softening. "She gets all shy and curls up like a dumpling. But I know she's getting too big. I want her to learn control now, not when she's the size of a fortress."
Jin slowly nodded, considering it. "This chip might help."
"What chip?"
He pulled a soft jade capsule from his satchel and handed it over. "Size modulation. I used it for my Glutton Panda. Cost me 150 school points."
Yumei turned it over in her hand, eyes widening in curiosity. "You trained him with this?"
"I tried training him normally for three months. He ignored everything. Then I told him no extra meals until he tried."
"And that worked?"
Jin gave a small nod. "He's food-motivated. Basically a furry blackhole with a talent for sulking. And he's a devouring-type of bloodline."
He flicked his fingers, and with a soft rustle of light, the Glutton Panda appeared beside him—round and sleepy-eyed at first glance. Then, at Jin's gesture, it stretched, shimmered, and expanded smoothly into a towering, barrel-chested form that stood almost twice Yumei's height. A moment later, it shrank rapidly, folding in on itself until it perched neatly on Jin's shoulder like an oversized plushie, then slid down to nest in his backpack with practiced ease.
Fan Yumei blinked. "…Okay, that's ridiculously useful."
Jin simply nodded.
Yumei laughed. "Mystic would probably respond better to praise… or maybe cloudberries."
"The chip holds a memory of the skill being used. The beast absorbs it into their core and tries to recreate the sensation until it becomes instinct."
Yumei watched Mystic floating in the sky, her four fins glowing faintly. "She's still young. But she's powerful. If she grows out of control…"
"She'll be terrifying," Jin said bluntly.
"She'll be unstoppable," Yumei corrected, grinning. "But still mine."
Jin just shook his head.
"Thanks for this," she added, tucking the chip safely into her storage bracelet.
He didn't reply immediately. Then, dryly, "I had extras. My panda's lazy. A salted fish when there's no food involved."
She laughed again. "I'll get Mystic some spicy salted fish as a reward if this works."
"Okay, okay…" she whispered, following his lead. "So, is your panda secretly good at this too?"
Jin paused. His Glutton Panda lay sprawled nearby, chewing on a sugar bamboo stick and pretending to be useless.
"Not quite," he said, glancing at the beast. "But it's good at growing… if food's involved."
Fan Yumei tilted her head, a spark of curiosity lighting in her eyes. "Speaking of—how does your panda do that size-changing thing? You never explained."
He looked at her for a long moment, then reached into his satchel. "You really want to know?"
"I asked, didn't I?"
He nodded once, then gave a single command: "Stand back."
Fan Yumei blinked as the Glutton Panda yawned, then slowly stood—and grew. It swelled in size until it towered above them at nearly two and a half meters tall, belly wobbling with each step, fur fluffing out like a massive blanket.
"Okay. That's still amazing," she breathed.
"It's a special trait from its devouring-type core," Jin explained. "But controlling the size shift—that wasn't natural."
Her eyes narrowed. "So you taught it?"
"Yes. Eventually." He said the next part with a bland tone. "Only after I told it no more meals or treats until it trained properly."
She laughed. "You blackmailed your beast with snacks?"
"It's very food motivated."
"I respect that. But how did it even learn the size skill? You said it wasn't natural, right?"
Jin finally held out a slim, glassy capsule with a soft jade glow. "Skill memory chip. I bought it from the school store for 150 points."
Fan Yumei stared at it. "Wait, that's where it came from? You can just buy skills?"
"They're not instant-use. The beast absorbs the memory and experiences what it's like to perform the technique—feeling, structure, qi rhythm. But they still have to train to truly learn it."
She whistled, impressed. "So you just… fed it the chip and waited?"
"I bought several," Jin added dryly. "Because it's a salted fish when food isn't on the line."
Yumei let out a snort, then blinked as he handed the chip to her.
Her brows lifted. "Seriously?"
"You're raising a mythical beast, a phantom eagle, and a spirit deer. You'll need everything you can get."
She took it gently, fingers brushing the glowing surface. "…Thanks."
"You'll owe me."
"Is that what this is? Some long-game favor setup?"
"I don't do favors without purpose."
Fan Yumei tucked the chip into her bag, her grin soft. "You're the weirdest eight-year-old I've ever met."
"I hear that a lot."
Lufei trotted over and dropped a new bundle of roots at her feet, perfectly intact. Mystic floated lower, one fin brushing against Yumei's hair like a nudge, her golden lightning crackling gently in amusement.
Fan Yumei looked down at her handful of crushed herbs, then up at Jin Minhe carefully lifting another glowing leaf with qi.
"I think I've found my weakness," she muttered.
"Just don't let the herbs hear you," Jin replied.
⸻
After the herbs were packed, and beast meat safely sealed, Yumei addressed the trio:
"Remember what we talked about with contributions from now on," she said, "Maxius, Lufei, Mystic—you all three agreed to earning shares."
She held up a glowing tag that tallied their collected goods.
"Fifty percent of all beast and herb profits will go toward food, medicine, training equipment, and housing repairs. The other half belongs to you individually. Spend it how you want. You earned it."
Lufei let out a proud whinny.
Maxius flared both wings—visible and invisible.
Mystic glowed with satisfaction.
Jin stayed quiet—but nodded once more, his qi slowly preserving the last bundle of herbs in a sealed packet at his side.
Hotpot Promise Kept
That night, back at her half-destroyed dome home, the cauldron steamed with fragrant broth. Mystic curled in her cloudform around the upper rim of the dome, four fins tucked beneath her like some divine blanket.
Star-grade herb leaves floated in the surface. Sliced beast meat simmered below.
Maxius flicked spices in with careful precision.
Lufei added wild mushroom curls.
Jin stirred, slower now, but focused.
"…Best hotpot ever," he muttered around a mouthful.
Yumei nodded, chewing.
They'd earned this—together.