Chapter 272: Chapter 264: The Ruan Family Is Really Putting in the Work

"Don’t overthink it. Let’s review."

Gu Ming walked over, pulled out a new set of competition questions, and slapped them on the desk.

The national competition’s schedule was extremely tight. The provincials ended today, and the nationals would begin tomorrow.

This evening was the deadline for each province to submit their list of names.

To keep Lu You from being disturbed, he had her stay behind as well so they could study their opponents at school together.

Before long, Teacher Zhang and Teacher Zhong had also gathered information on the talented students who had emerged from each province through their respective channels.

Because the competition received so much attention from parents, this information was difficult to keep completely confidential. It was basically an open secret; as long as you had the money, you could buy the primary source material right away.

Gu Ming soon received a list of the national competition contestants, totaling over five hundred people.

This was only a preliminary count and didn’t include every participant, but it contained information on most of the strong contenders.

Along with it came the Beast Taming theses published in major journals by the S Level-rated contestants.

The papers for A+ Level-rated contestants, however, were not compiled and sent over.

This was mainly because too many people had received an A+ Level rating. Everyone participating in the competition was a one-in-a-thousand talent; only the S Level contestants were considered truly top-tier.

This was also related to Gu Ming’s current achievements. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Gu Ming and Lu You were a pair of S Levels, putting them in a higher bracket.

The school wasn’t about to give him detailed information on people weaker than him.

Besides, this was a big year for the competition, with four S Level-rated contestants appearing.

In previous years, you might not see a single S Level contestant the entire year. Today, four had appeared at once, and Gu Ming and Lu You were two of them.

Gu Ming definitely needed to read the others’ theses to avoid being caught off guard when facing them in the arena.

"Read these two’s theses first. We’re still sorting through the data on the A+ Level candidates and will send you information on contestants who might counter you."

"Okay, thank you, Teacher."

"Heh, don’t mention it," Teacher Zhang said with a dry laugh.

Logically, with Gu Ming and Lu You’s current results, they deserved to be praised to the high heavens.

The problem was, Gu Ming hadn’t signed a genius contract with the school, and neither had Lu You.

This left the principal extremely conflicted. He was dying to mobilize the entire province’s resources to publicize the school’s incredible achievements.

But on the other hand, promoting Gu Ming and Lu You would harm the interests of the school’s contracted genius students. All that media exposure was originally reserved for their Pet Beasts.

The principal knew that boasting about two incredible S Level competition students would maximize Qing Lake High School’s prestige, and he would have a lot of face when attending meetings.

But!

If the big shots from other schools found out at a meeting that Gu Ming and Lu You’s genius contracts weren’t with Qing Lake High School, it would only be met with sneers and heated gossip. The school’s own backers would lose face as well.

This made the principal both happy and miserable, though he was mostly miserable. The more he thought about it, the more he agonized.

If it weren’t for Teacher Zhong still being at the school, shadowing Gu Ming to study Cyan Treasure’s Dantian Foundation Establishment Platform, with the Duomu Dragon Pharmaceutical Company’s involvement in the background, the school administration would have lost its patience long ago.

In fact, Teacher Zhong had also received a message from his company. A superior had already asked him about Gu Ming’s current situation.

The national competition was a battlefield where talented students from all the country’s factions vied with one another. Behind the scenes, the competition was already cutthroat.

The competition hadn’t even started, yet the demonic claws of various investors were already reaching out, hoping to invest in Gu Ming and Lu You.

Theoretically, any candidate who could enter the national competition, even if they failed, could get into any first-tier Beast Taming University.

And if they achieved a high ranking in the national competition and successfully advanced to the internationals, various universities would offer them real money and resources, just to recruit a truly talented student.

With a ticket to the national competition in hand, Gu Ming already had one foot in the door of a Beast Taming University.

If he just gave the word, he could choose any university in the country.

But the resources he’d get by agreeing now would be far less than what he could get after the competition.

Less than ten minutes after Teacher Zhong sent the files, his superior sent several messages, telling him to talk to Gu Ming directly about the Duomu Dragon Company’s genius contract.

If Gu Ming didn’t agree, then this research trip was to be terminated. The company would have Secretary Zhong return and would also publicly declare that the company had no partnership with Gu Ming.

Obviously, the Duomu Dragon Company wasn’t stupid.

They had spent over half an hour investigating his background, found that his history was clean and he had no powerful connections, and immediately got ideas. They knew Gu Ming was bluffing.

Duomu Dragon Pharmaceutical Company had caught on; there was no way they would let a "blank slate" genius like Gu Ming go.

Secretary Zhong thought for a moment and asked, "Gu Ming, what are your plans for the future?"

Gu Ming was still reviewing the materials. Hearing his Teacher Zhong ask this, he knew what he meant without even looking at him.

He didn’t reply, pretending not to hear. He put on a busy expression and threw himself completely into analyzing the problems.

Secretary Zhong knew Gu Ming’s ambitions. Gu Ming was determined to go all the way in the competition, to fight to the very end. He would never sell out for short-term benefits by agreeing to the company’s offer.

He was caught in the middle, in a difficult position.

Teacher Zhang coughed and said, "Old Zhong, I advise you not to be hasty. The Ruan Family has already agreed to help. As long as they want the next Visualization Image, they’ll make a move. You need to be patient."

Secretary Zhong had arrived late and hadn’t heard Gu Ming’s phone call rejecting the Ruan Family’s invitation to a party.

"Are you talking about the Ruan Family from Tian Nan City? Or the Ruan Family from Lanqi City?" he asked.

The same surname could mean completely different things in different provinces and cities.

Teacher Zhang said no more, lowering his head to sort through the materials.

A corner of the school’s study hall fell silent for a good while. Another fifteen minutes passed.

Secretary Zhong was a little nervous. He constructed several responses in his head, preparing to deal with his superior.

’If it comes to it, I’ll just have to stall. I know how high-pressure the Beastmaster society is these days.’

Even his Five-star Pet Beast wasn’t his own; it belonged to the enterprise. He only had the right to lease it, one year at a time, and the rent was exorbitant.

The key was, he had raised the Pet Beast from its Juvenile Stage after adopting it from the company. He had poured so much effort into it.

Even so, he only had leasing rights. The company could reclaim its property at any time.

Without the Pet Beast the company leased to him, he was nothing.

To put it nicely, he was a so-called Beastmaster employee of a national top-500 pharmaceutical company.

To put it bluntly, they were all just wage earners. He was only a little more senior than Teacher Zhang Yunpeng and two Realms stronger; that was it.

After waiting a little longer, the perpetually anxious man suddenly felt that something was strange.

"Strange, why hasn’t my superior sent a message to rush me?" he muttered.

His superior had given him a strict order to secure Gu Ming’s genius contract and put him on the track of a "targeted training student."

They were trying to get Gu Ming to sign early, tying his name to the company. The company would then assign Gu Ming to a university, where he would study and work at the same time, with the resources for raising his Pet Beast provided by them.

In return, the entire series of cultivation plans for the Pet Beast would also be drawn up by the company. Gu Ming would have no right to create the plans; he would merely be the one to execute them.

On the bright side, this contract would allow Gu Ming, who was hovering between a middle-class and non-middle-class family, to immediately join the ranks of the wealthy. His future Pet Beast would be arranged to reach the Six-star Level, one Star Level higher than his current prospects, and he would even have the chance to attempt a Seven-star Evolution. His future potential would be far greater than Teacher Zhong’s own.

You had to understand that after the Four-star Level, every single star of Evolution for a Pet Beast required special core resources.

Finding core evolution resources by luck in the wild was about as likely as winning the lottery.

Forty or fifty years ago, it was still somewhat possible; the industry was still in a state of Chaos.

But now, with how deeply every Beast Taming Enterprise had developed the country, there were hardly any loopholes left to exploit.

Teacher Zhong waited and waited, but surprisingly, no urging message came from his superior. It was as if the situation up top had taken a new turn.

’Could it be?’

’The Ruan Family made their move?’

’Seriously? Was it all just for one Visualization Image for a Tri-Colored Holy Light Breathing Technique?’

The question flashed through his mind.

’No, it definitely couldn’t be for just one Tri-Colored technique. The Ruan Family probably included Lu You’s Breathing Technique by default. That would make it two Tri-Colored Breathing Techniques, plus a favor owed by Gu Ming.’

’Hmm, if you were to ask if that was worth it, I couldn’t say for sure.’

’But for the Ruan Family to stop the restless Duomu Dragon Company, they must have their own plans.’