There were three spirit beast qualification assessment centers in Songhai city, and they mainly dealt in class identification. As long as you produced the relevant soul pet contract and paid the compulsory assessment fee, you could take the qualification assessment test. Loopy Toad had been at Wang Ling’s place for so long, but they had never formed a contract… because this kind of contract was in fact meaningless to both Wang Ling and Loopy Toad.

　　The reason for the existence of the soul pet contract was so that owners could use the power of the contract to forcibly restrain their soul pets if they went out of control. But as a pet that belonged to Ling Zhenren, this type of contract was utterly worthless.

　　First of all, there was no way Loopy Toad would ever lose control, let alone rebel against Wang Ling – that was just deliberately asking for trouble.

　　However, in order to participate in the spirit beast qualification assessment center’s test this time, Wang Ling had formed a contract with Loopy Toad last night, and Loopy Toad had brought that contract out with it.

　　The toad clan had a Space Swallowing Spell, and though Loopy Toad was now a dog, it could still cast the spell as long as it could use spirit energy and knew the incantation. For now, the contract was stored away inside its mouth.

　　…

　　It was almost eleven o’clock when a green akita showed up at the entrance to the qualification assessment center.

　　This was the spirit beast qualification assessment center in the heart of the city. It was a very imposing building that was shaped like a giant egg and densely studded with all kinds of decorative spirit stones.

　　Loopy Toad reached the glass doors in two or three jumps. Although it had yet to enter the building, it could already hear the noise inside.

　　In front of the reception desk was a long queue of cultivators waiting with their spirit beasts to get the qualification assessment done. Contrary to Loopy Toad’s expectations, the spirit beasts ahead of it in line were pretty ordinary. There were all kinds of spirit beasts, from those that flew to those that ran and those that swam… the most novel spirit beast actually turned out to be a butterfly whose owner was a teenager wearing a red peaked cap and standing in front of Loopy Toad in line.

　　This butterfly was obediently perched motionless on the teenager’s shoulder.

　　Loopy Toad was at the very end of the queue. When it spotted the butterfly, it immediately started to sweat; this was most likely a rare spirit butterfly, but Loopy Toad couldn’t tell exactly what species of spirit butterfly it belonged to.

　　The classification of spirit beasts in the cultivation world was just too complicated. There were all kinds of fantastic oddities. Therefore, whether a spirit beast was good or bad often depended on how strong it was.

　　As long as you were strong enough, even if you were a spirit ant, you could be called a king.

　　Nowadays, there were plenty of cultivators who relied on the spirit beasts they kept to earn money by entering them in soul pet competitions all across the country. This was a new industry which the spirit beast qualification assessment centers had been created to serve.

　　First of all, they could link together soul pet competitions all over the country to provide the government with precise data on spirit beasts. Secondly, they could make proper records of all the spirit beasts that were being kept as pets nationwide so that if something happened, the assessment centers could contact the owners directly.

　　While it was in line, Loopy Toad saw the boy with the red peaked cap in front of it suddenly turn to look at it. “Did you come by yourself? Where’s your owner?”

　　Loopy Toad raised its head to look at the clock in the main hall of the qualification assessment center and directly replied, “He’s in class.”

　　In the end, this inconsequential reply made all the nearby spirit beasts and their owners in line send utterly amazed looks in Loopy Toad’s direction – even the security guards next to them who were in charge of maintaining order, as well as the qualification assessment center’s management, were shocked.

　　The hell?! This green-furred dog could actually talk?

　　In general, only second-class spirit beasts would have a preliminary grasp of language, right?

　　Usually for spirit beasts lower than second class, only their owners whom they had formed contracts with would be able to understand what they were saying!

　　The teenager stared at Loopy Toad in utter amazement. “You can talk? Are you a second-class beast?”

　　Loopy Toad was very modest. “Second-class? I don’t think I’m there yet…”

　　The teenager was a little puzzled. “Then how are you able to talk?”

　　Loopy Toad: “I can also write; is it so hard to learn?”

　　Everyone: “…”

　　The teenager took a deep breath. He had originally wondered what kind of owner would be so relaxed as to let their soul pet come to take the qualification assessment on its own…

　　This was because there would be a follow-up form to fill plus a question-and-answer session for which the soul pets would need to collaborate with their owners. But if the soul pet could talk and write… then its owner really didn’t need to accompany it for the qualification assessment.

　　This teenager was in fact that kind of cultivator who specialized in training his own spirit beasts and then take them all over the country to take part in competitions. The moment he had seen Loopy Toad, he had immediately been taken with it… he felt that this green-furred dog wasn’t just any ordinary type of cool!

　　What kind of spirit beast could speak and write despite not having yet advanced to second class?

　　This teenager was incredibly curious about Loopy Toad, and he immediately crouched down and stretched out one hand. “Hello, nice to meet you… My name is Wei Zhi, I’m from Zhenxin town. You can call me Little Zhi.”

　　“…”

　　Loopy Toad was dazed as for some reason, it felt like it had heard this linebefore ¹ . To be polite, it also put out its paw.

　　This teenager called Wei Zhi looked very excited. “Were you born with green fur?”

　　Loopy Toad nodded its head. “Sort of…”

　　In fact, it had long wanted to complain about this green fur.

　　Although it had once been a demon king, Loopy Toad had never crossed any lines, and hadn’t done anything too outrageous. The greatest atrocity it had ever committed in its life was probably when the Gate Between Worlds had descended six years ago… Furthermore, probably no one would believe that back then, it had been the other demon kings that had joined hands to push it out of the Gate.

　　In the end, it had barely landed before it had been killed.

　　With the exception of this incident, Loopy Toad thought that it was a pretty decent toad. But then Teacher Pan had fused it with a dog and turned it into a green-furred akita, which had filled Loopy Toad’s heart with despair.

　　Was there anyone who had never made any mistakes when they were younger? Why did it have to be turned into the color of forgiveness ² .

　　It might not seem like a big deal to anyone else, but it was really painful for Loopy Toad…

　　Because of this teenager Wei Zhi’s flustered behavior, Loopy Toad noticed that there were now more and more eyes on it… Even several of the staff members in charge of registration at the front desk were staring at it strangely.

　　When it was Wei Zhi’s turn to fill in the assessment form, he cast a slightly concerned glance at Loopy Toad.

　　“Shall I fill it out for you? It’s hard for you to hold a pen in your paw, right?”

　　Loopy Toad shook its head. “No, I’ll do it myself.”

　　Wei Zhi and the staff at the front desk were dumbstruck. Then Wei Zhi gave Loopy Toad an information form and passed it a pen, and he couldn’t help laughing. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen a dog write…”

　　Loopy Toad held the pen adeptly. Actually, it wasn’t so much that it was holding the pen, but that it had attached it to its paw with spirit energy. This was a pose which Loopy Toad had especially studied, and it made it easier to move the pen back and forth.

　　As Loopy Toad began to fill in the form, a lot of people in the queue couldn’t help watching; even Wei Zhi couldn’t help glancing in Loopy Toad’s direction as he filled in his own form.

　　Suddenly, Wei Zhi asked curiously, “What kind of spirit dog are you?”

　　Loopy Toad answered indifferently, “Akita.”

　　Akita?

　　Everyone was shocked… because the akita was just a normal dog breed, and didn’t belong to the ranks of spirit dogs at all!

　　Wei Zhi was astonished. “Are you a mongrel?”

　　The corners of Loopy Toad’s eyes twitched. “You’re the mongrel!”

　　Wei Zhi: “…”