A few days after giving the Wind-dwelling Egret skills book to the red-haired man, Chen An saw an advancing newcomer on the leaderboard.
At this juncture, Chen An had already defeated more than 30 opponents and was ranked 65th…
Right on his heels, at the 66th ranking, was that person’s name, Duan Pingchao.
This had been a controversial person in De Yuan. Everyone had chided him for hurting people during beast battles in the past, but this had not occurred in his recent battles.
In addition, his beast had become more powerful, and it was unknown as to what skills book it had used. He had also adopted a completely new combat strategy.
No one knew the reason for the change, and everyone was trying to find out his secret formula.
Chen An laughed and brushed this off. They had been calling him the red-haired man all this time. In fact, his real name was Duan Pingchao.
This change had piqued the curiosity of many.
“That Duan Pingchao is too strange. He suddenly became so powerful. I suspect that it has something to do with his skills book. I’ve never seen such a special skills book with such powerful wind-attribute attack. Who knows of it?”
“Who would know? He’s not the only strange one. Liu Ran’s skills book is also very strange.”
“Chen An too. His tactics are getting fancier and fancier in the ranking battle stage. R-right. Aren’t the three of them from the same dormitory? Something is fishy here.”
Upon coming to this sudden realization, everyone began to ponder over this meticulously. It was still logical for Duan Pingchao and Liu Ran’s cases. They had an additional skills book of unknown origins.
However, Chen An’s case was too exaggerated. The tactics he adopted were as countless as stars. In addition, they resembled the skills his opponents had used on the ranking battle stage.
“What? What? Are you saying that Chen An is able to pick up our skills as long as he fights with us? That’s too scary!”
“That’s not right. What about the other two? Since Chen An can do that, so can they? Won’t that be chaotic?”
Chen An had always been regarded as a unique exception. Numerous people were targeting him, but they endured their anger and dared not utter a word. Nonetheless, if everyone was like Chen An, it would pose a huge threat.
“That won’t do! I have to get a line on this!”
Liu Ran was the most big-mouthed one, and he was tricked the moment he heard that someone had information on a precious treasure. In the end, he was led into revealing that Chen An was a powerful Skills Book Creator.
People then came to realize why all of this had come to be.
As long as they could become closer with Chen An or use some means to curry favor with him, they might obtain some special skills books from him.
This was why Skills Book Creators were very much sought after.
It was just that most Skills Book Creators had their limits, and they could not create books that boldly and fearlessly.
Things were different when it came to Chen An, however.
Some people had been scornful with their remarks about Chen An earlier. They had always gossiped and commented negatively about Chen An’s behavior in De Yuan.
They had said he pulled strings to get into De Yuan. Otherwise, Zheng Qing would not have lost to him. During the dormitory arrangements, they had said he was an oddball and refused to stay with him. They had also said that Chen An wanted to make a name for himself during the teacher’s introductory battle and intentionally snatched everyone’s opportunity. During the challenge, he had not dared to fight Zheng Qing and was a coward.
They had been repeating these words behind Chen An’s back to countless people. Anyone who was familiar with them could already regurgitate these words.
However, they seemed to have become different today. They were full of smiles and fawns when facing Chen An and had awkward, strange expressions.
“Chen An, we are also considered classmates. Although different teachers teach us, we are still classmates. Previously… Er… No… We have always been on good terms, right?”
Chen An did not know what they were trying to convey. He only felt amused. “I don’t remember any of you at all. How are we related?”
They were immediately embarrassed by this.
“Why don’t you introduce yourself using both your hands and legs and with lots of expressions to show me that you’re someone worth knowing? I’ll take it that I know you then.” Chen An felt this was not a demanding request.
In fact, he knew their names, as all of them were shameless with their words.
They initially looked embarrassed, but greed soon overcame their pride. They temporarily put down their dignities and then introduced their names and respective beasts comically.
“My cousin is older than me by five years. She’s already a five-star Beast Tamer. She has defeated at least—”
Chen An shook his head and told him to retract his hand gesture of five. “Since your cousin is so powerful, why do you have to know me?”
Someone said, “I have the most powerful beast, the last time, I spent—”
Chen An shook his head again. He could not bear to continue looking at his dumb action of using both hands to cup his face like a flower. “You have the most powerful beast? I don’t think we need to know each other then.”
“N-no! There is a need! I’ll give it another go!”
Chen An knew very well how to deal with them. These people liked to talk bad about him because they dared not admit that they were weaker than him. It was this fear that made him sacrifice their face so that they could gain something from him.
Chen An was not playing a deliberate prank on them. If they could liven up his mood, he was willing to throw a few skills books to them.
Chen An was even more generous toward those who had no grudges or feud with him.
Those who received the skills books felt that they had gained a treasure. They could not wait to use them. True enough, there was a marked improvement in their beast’s competency.
This was the first time they discovered that they had a very superficial understanding of their beasts. After heeding Chen An’s advice on the pairing of spirit core and skills book, as well as combat methods, the effect was excellent, and they could unleash the power of the beasts.
All of a sudden, there was a fad about idolizing Chen An in De Yuan.
Some people were convinced about Chen An’s capability and that he had many good things to offer. Of course, to follow closely behind heavy-laden wagons, they had to improve their relationship with Chen An.
Some recognized the gap after comparing themselves with Chen An and felt increased respect and admiration for him.
Some discovered the problem. Why did Chen An’s skills books look that familiar?
After comparing carefully, they discovered that these were the beast skills that originally belonged to Chen An’s previous opponents.
The more skills books were given, the more this belief was verified.
Once the news spread, those who had battled with Chen An before felt the most uneasy. They took their beasts as their possessions, and all the beast skills belonged to them. They must not let other people use them.