The Life Energy within Ah Kun’s body was like a river that had burst its banks, surging and roaring through its meridians.

Its once grayish-brown scales now glowed with a moist, pearlescent light. Each one shimmered like polished glass soaked in moonlight, flickering in and out of sight with its every breath.

Its tail fin trembled violently, churning the river’s surface into layered waves. Droplets of water hung suspended in the air, as if held aloft by an unseen force.

’It’s... time to ascend!’

The Grouper Fish’s murky eyes suddenly cleared, and an Illusion of the Hanging God Waterfall appeared in its mind.

A colossal torrent poured down from the clouds, and it leaped against the raging rapids time and time again, its scales peeling away only to be reborn.

At that moment, the Gui Shui Mana in its body resonated with the Foundation Establishment Platform. The phantom of the Ancient Dragon Fish inside the Dragon Pattern Tripod let out a long cry—a sound like a whale, yet not a whale. The cracks on the tripod’s body bloomed with light, bursting forth with an azure brilliance.

SPLASH—

Ah Kun whipped its tail, and the cluster of water bubbles supporting it suddenly stretched out, transforming into a spiraling, ascending waterspout.

Its body began to expand the instant it took to the air. Its fishy form, originally no longer than an arm, grew section by section. Its back arched like a bow, and the edges of its pectoral fins tore apart only to reform, growing a translucent, web-like structure.

The onlookers cried out in alarm and stepped back.

Teacher Zhong muttered to himself, immediately releasing his own Pet Beast to stand guard and prevent any outside interference.

He stood on the bank observing Ah Kun, his eyes suddenly bright with interest.

At the same time, his Divine Sense left his body and entered Ah Kun, observing it thoroughly from the inside out to probe the secrets of its Evolution.

Without a doubt, the light of Evolution currently enveloping Ah Kun was the effect achieved after learning the Wave-Swallowing Technique.

According to legend, a fish-type Pet Beast that completed the Three-Step Technique could jump three levels in a row, reaching a maximum of Eight-star, which was the peak level of the grandmaster who created the technique.

Now, Ah Kun had learned this technique at the One-star Level.

Even without having mastered the technique to a profound degree, it had instantly shattered its physical shackles and was now charging toward the Two-star Realm.

For Ah Kun, this was both an opportunity and an unimaginable method of Evolution.

This type of Evolution is what we generally call a Super Evolution.

The moment it learned the Wave-Swallowing Technique and took that first step—Abyssal Stop—its body underwent a drastic change. It broke through its physical bottleneck, and the Celestial Dao itself infused it with a blessing.

To take from the excessive and give to the deficient—such is the Way of the Celestial Dao.

"Ah Kun, go! Use the Foundation Establishment Platform to perform the Splitting Inner Core technique and evolve directly!" Gu Ming shouted from below.

He could also see that this was the catalyst for a Super Evolution.

To trigger a Super Evolution and have the Celestial Dao compensate for a Pet Beast’s shortcomings, one of its strengths had to be exceptionally strong—strong enough to break the limits of the One-star Realm.

At this very moment, the Wave-Swallowing Technique was that exceptional strength.

Ah Kun understood instantly. It immediately executed the Splitting Inner Core technique, its will acting like a knife as it cleaved its Inner Core in two.

Meanwhile, its body continued to ascend, as if swimming up the Hanging God Waterfall itself, vying with heaven and earth!

SWOOSH—!

A silver-blue figure burst through the curtain of water, shooting a hundred meters into the sky against the glare of the sun!

Gu Ming cheered loudly for Ah Kun. His Divine Sense could "see" inside Ah Kun’s Sea of Consciousness, where the twelve-node Memorization Array was operating frantically, melding the memory of watching the waterfall with its current experience of Evolution to form a completely new understanding.

The Foundation Establishment Platform now demonstrated unparalleled control. Far from spiraling out of control, the split Inner Core circled above the Dragon Pattern Tripod like the Gemini-star. It drew in water vapor from the air, which condensed into a cocoon around Ah Kun’s body. Everything proceeded as smooth as silk.

A pillar of evolutionary light also shot up from its body into the blue sky, causing all the passersby in the vicinity to notice the commotion.

CRACK!

When Ah Kun reached the highest point of the waterspout it had created.

The watery cocoon around its body suddenly exploded, bursting forth with an endless evolutionary radiance.

Its tail fin extended vertically into a crescent shape, its edges gleaming with a cold, metallic light.

The most astonishing change was to its belly. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Its once soft, dark-gray scales had keratinized, layer by layer, forming hexagonal armor plates that refracted the sunlight into a deep, abyssal blue.

’So this is... the feeling of swimming against the current.’

From the very peak, Ah Kun leaped upward.

Although the top of the Hanging God Waterfall was very, very high—far too high for it to challenge right now—its Mana was already insufficient to extend the waterspout beyond three hundred meters.

But the view from three hundred meters up was completely different from the view on the ground.

It turned its head in mid-air, looking around at the distant rooftops and orderly roads, which resembled a magnified chessboard.

Its perspective had widened, and the sky itself even seemed to have a slight curve to it.

This was the view from three hundred meters.

What would the view be like from five hundred meters, a thousand, or even ten thousand?

It would surely be different from this.

After climbing to this height, Ah Kun’s remaining strength was spent, and it was washed downward by the wave.

It turned and controlled the current, diving down along the water’s surface. It instinctively flared its gill covers, taking in huge gulps of water to calm itself.

With a gentle flick of its fins, a small, one-meter-deep whirlpool instantly formed in the river below.

The rushing river water seemed to fall under the control of this small vortex, as if a pause button had been pressed, and it once again fell into a stagnant state.

"This is a Super Evolution!" Teacher Zhong’s voice trembled.

A normal Two-star Evolution merely involved an increase in size, Power, and Mana.

Ah Kun had all three, and to a much greater degree. But the most crucial part was its astonishing aura.

It wasn’t the evolutionary aura of a Grouper Fish, but rather that of a Fish King species.

’Could Ah Kun have a Fish King bloodline?’

Teacher Zhong pondered this internally. His Divine Sense didn’t miss a single detail, observing the evolutionary changes triggered by the Wave-Swallowing Technique.

"Sigh, what a pity."

Afterwards, he shook his head and sighed, causing Teacher Zhang, who was standing beside him, to roll his eyes.

He knew why Teacher Zhong was sighing.

The Wave-Swallowing Technique was an advanced Combat Technique, meant for Four Five-stars Pet Beasts to learn and use as a chance to evolve.

If it was mastered at the One-star Level, then the subsequent three-level jump would only take it to the Four-star Level at most.

At a glance, it seemed like Gu Ming had suffered a huge loss, and he couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

However, Gu Ming didn’t think it was a pity at all.

"Look, my student doesn’t think so. The two of them are very happy right now."

Teacher Zhang shook his head, nudging his old classmate beside him with his elbow.

Teacher Zhong glanced over and saw Gu Ming cheerfully hugging the large Grouper Fish. Both of them radiated a pure, brilliant joy, showing none of the anxiety he felt for its future path of Evolution.

Teacher Zhang chuckled from the side:

"Look on the bright side. For a Grouper Fish, being generous, the Two-star Level is its absolute limit."

"If it can really evolve to a Three-star or Four-star, that would be a true breakthrough of its historical limitations. It would raise the Star Level ceiling for this entire Basic Type."

Hearing this, Teacher Zhong was momentarily unable to refute it.

He knew Teacher Zhang was right.

A Grouper Fish really couldn’t evolve to Three-star.

Years of research had long since proven this to be the species’ limit; otherwise, it wouldn’t have been classified as a Basic Type Pet Beast.

Besides, Gu Ming’s path of Evolution lacked general applicability. It relied too heavily on Talent.

After all, was the Wave-Swallowing Technique Battle Technique really so easy to master?

As he thought of this, Teacher Zhong suddenly found himself at a loss for words.

Because he suddenly realized that the method Gu Ming was using involved an Array to assist the Pet Beast’s learning, thereby drastically lowering the barrier to entry for the Wave-Swallowing Technique!

Talent certainly played a huge role, but the effect of this Array was, in his opinion, also significant.

This point alone gave it revolutionary potential for widespread application!

"Could it be... that this method could be taught to more students?" Teacher Zhong couldn’t help but mutter to himself.

If that were truly possible, then the significance of popularizing Gu Ming’s Array would be completely different.

This would no longer be a simple stroke of luck, but a groundbreaking innovation that could benefit everyone!