Chapter 32: hotpot promises

The sun dipped low, casting amber light across the gently swaying cultivation grove. Mystic hovered just above the canopy, her immense white form drifting lazily in the air. Her four long, translucent fins moved in slow, undulating patterns, golden lightning flickering through her cloudlike body. Below, Fan Yumei crouched beside a patch of star-tier leafroot, brow furrowed in concentration.

"Hey! Be delicate—these are currency!" Jin Minhe grumbled, snatching the herb from her fingers.

"I am being delicate," she insisted, right as the root gave a soft crack.

"…That was just enthusiastic encouragement."

"You encouraged it to die," Jin replied without looking up. He was carefully guiding a tight pulse of qi around a silver-veined stalk, lifting it from the soil with surgeon-level control.

Fan Yumei scowled. "I'm not yanking. I'm motivationally extracting."

"Call it what you want," Jin muttered. "Still sounds like herbicide with extra steps."

Even Lufei trotted over, delicately balancing a neat bundle of herbs between her teeth. Her crystal antlers glinted in the fading light. Maxius fluttered down soundlessly, one wing barely stirring the air. He dropped a pristine bundle beside her feet before vanishing again in a blink. Overhead, Mystic trilled lazily and used her wind qi and tail to aerate the soil. The other two beasts helped collect the newly uprooted plants, visibly amused.

Fan Yumei groaned. "Even my bonded beasts are outclassing me."

"They've got softer instincts than you," Jin said. "Mystic doesn't even have hands, and she's still better at harvesting with a puff of wind."

"I didn't expect betrayal from you too, Mystic," she muttered.

Mystic tilted sideways and released a purring breeze that tousled Yumei's hair.

Yumei flopped backward with a sigh, arms sprawled wide. "You know, I've really been thinking about that size modulation chip your panda uses."

Jin raised a brow. "For Mystic?"

She nodded. "She's a Sky Leviathan-class. Not just rare—she's restricted. Some of the deeper beastology archives mention her kind, but most of the netsphere is speculation. There are myths she could grow to mountain or planetary scale. No one actually knows."

"That's… not reassuring."

"It gets better. She's already had one growth spurt. First time was indoors—blew out the ceiling. Second time, she tried to crawl into bed with us and ended up splitting the outer wall. My mom yelled at me for ten minutes."

"I'm guessing you've been adjusting her diet?"

"Yeah. Less high-energy supplements. She only gets her main beast-feed once a day now to slow things down until she learns size regulation."

Jin blinked. "You didn't think to open with that?"

"I thought it was normal!" she threw her hands up. "Then my dad and Uncle Hanji nearly passed out when she doubled her length overnight while we were riding inside the house."

"And you still let her sleep indoors?"

"Sometimes she still tries. She used to curl up in her egg, but after she cracked it open and ate it… well, it's instinct. Now she mostly floats outside on her clouds. She curls up like a dumpling when she's tired—it's adorable."

"But not sustainable."

"Exactly. I want her learning control now—not when she's the size of a high-altitude fortress."

Jin considered it. "This might help."

He pulled a soft jade capsule from his satchel and held it out. "Size Modulation Chip. I used it for my Glutton Panda. Cost me 150 school points."

Yumei turned it over, eyes gleaming. "You trained him with this?"

"I tried everything else for three months. He ignored it all. Then I said no more meals until he at least attempted it."

"And that worked?"

"He's food-motivated. Basically a black-and-white vacuum with legs. Devouring-type bloodline."

With a flick of his fingers, Jin summoned the Glutton Panda—a sleepy-eyed, deceptively docile creature. At his nod, it shimmered and stretched into a towering, round-bodied mass, twice Yumei's height. A beat later, it shrank like a folding blanket until it perched neatly on his shoulder, then slid into his backpack like it was routine.

Fan Yumei stared. "Okay, that's cheating."

"It's survival."

"Mystic might respond to praise," Yumei mused. "Or cloudberries."

"The chip holds a memory—qi rhythm, muscle tension, core modulation. The beast absorbs it, then mimics the memory until it becomes instinct."

"She's still young," Yumei murmured, watching Mystic float overhead, her fins faintly glowing. "But she's strong. If she grows unchecked—"

"She'll be terrifying," Jin said.

"She'll be unstoppable," Yumei corrected, grinning. "And still mine."

Jin just shook his head.

"Thanks," she added, tucking the chip into her storage bracelet.

He didn't respond right away. Then, deadpan: "I had extras. My panda's useless without food. Salted fish-level lazy."

Yumei laughed. "I'll reward Mystic with spicy salted fish if this works."

"Careful. You're enabling her."

Yumei smirked. "So, how did your panda learn the size mod thing? You said it wasn't natural."

"Devouring core lets it shift mass—but I used this."

He pulled another jade capsule with a soft green glow.

"You just bought this from the school store?"

Jin nodded. "They're legal tech. Skill memory chips—copies of recorded abilities sealed into qi-flex circuits. The beast experiences what the skill feels like. But it still has to train."

"You fed it one and waited?"

"I fed it five. Because he refused to move unless food was directly involved."

Yumei blinked as he handed her the chip.

"Seriously?"

"You're raising a myth-class Leviathan, a phantom eagle with a disappearing wing, and a crystal-antler spirit deer. You're going to need everything."

She took it slowly, reverently. "Thanks."

"You owe me."

"Is this one of those long-con 'you'll owe me a favor someday' setups?"

"I don't give favors for free."

She tucked it into her belt pouch, grinning. "You're the strangest eight-year-old I've ever met."

"I hear that a lot."

Lufei trotted over, dropped a bundle of perfectly intact roots. Mystic floated lower, one fin brushing Yumei's hair like a nudge, her golden lightning crackling in approval.

Fan Yumei looked down at her crushed herbs, then up at Jin precisely guiding a leafroot into a storage packet.

"I think I found my weakness," she muttered.

"Don't let the herbs hear you," Jin replied.

⸻

Later, with the herbs packed and sealed beast meat stashed, Yumei turned to the trio:

"Remember what we agreed on," she said, holding up a glowing tag that displayed their resource tally.

"Fifty percent of all beast and herb profits go to food, medicine, gear, and dome repairs. The rest belongs to each of you. Spend it how you want."

Lufei gave a proud whinny.

Maxius flared both wings—one visible, one phantom.

Mystic glowed, trilling softly.

Jin stayed silent, preserving the final root bundle with a qi-seal as the light faded.

⸻

That afternoon, back at her half-rebuilt dome-home, steam rose from the hotpot.

Mystic coiled lazily around the dome's upper rim in cloudform, four fins tucked beneath like a celestial quilt.

Star-tier herb leaves floated across the broth's surface. Sliced beast meat simmered below.

Maxius added fine-cut spices.

Lufei dropped in curled mushrooms.

Jin stirred the pot—slow, but focused.

"…Best hotpot ever," he mumbled, mouth full.

Yumei nodded, chewing.

They'd earned this—together.