Chapter 185

Huh? He Yue listened, stunned. Why did this content sound so familiar? He secretly asked his older brother, "Is it talking about a spirit pet contract?"

Though the voice was soft, the wolf demon's hearing was exceptional. Lu Xin was very displeased: "It is not a spirit pet contract. Rock Wolves will never be pets!"

"Fine, fine." Seeing them all bristling with rage, He Chunhua hurriedly spoke to soothe them, "This agreement is fine."

Taking advantage of the heat of the moment, Lu Xin added more: "Also, each of us wolves must eat at least seven jin of good meat every day."

"That is not a problem." Isn't it just providing meals? Would an army be afraid of big eaters? He Chunhua went to the market boy's carriage, took out paper and brush to write the contract in duplicate, signed it himself, and then brought it back for the wolf demon to view.

Lu Xin found another old wolf to come over and audit it, repeatedly confirming the content was correct—actually, there were only two sentences to begin with—and only then did it press its claw print onto the contract.

And so, it became a contract.

Because the strange person in the sky had moved far away, the wolf-man gradually calmed down. The pack of wolves crowded over to rub heads and sniff tails with him, and not knowing how they communicated, the wolf-man licked them a few times.

One wolf didn't know where it got a blood-red sphere, looking like a lantern, and fed it to the wolf-man. After the latter ate it, his eyes gradually brightened, and he also began to wag his tail, his attitude toward the wolf pack starting to become warm.

Thus, Lu Xin asked He Chunhua to retract the Silk Heaven Net, and the wolf pack crowded around the young master as they went down the mountain. They had to send the young master out of the Shi Huan territory before dawn to stay far away from the strange person.

Lu Xin and another wolf, Lu Jin, stayed behind as agreed.

As for how to transport the wolf-man back to the North Star Moss Plains, that was the internal business of the Rock Wolf clan, and they did not ask.

The Lu Ming Garden guards saw that the situation here was stable, so they took their leave and returned to the mountain.

The carriages that Ke Jihai and the He family were riding in were both broken, so they had no choice but to ride horses down the mountain. The captive He Yue had wounded was not dead, and after simple treatment of his wounds, he was interrogated on the spot.

It was hard to say if this person wasn't tough enough or if Ke Jihai's methods were ruthless, but in any case, he confessed very quickly, admitting that he and these few others were chess pieces left in Shi Huan City by the Xunzhou Shepherd Nian Zanli, and the masked person who drove the strange monster was respectfully called Mr. Dong, who was an assassin invited by the Grand Marshal with heavy gold.

Ke Jihai and He Chunhua were both common enemies of both sides, and upon hearing that they were both going to attend the Zhu family's night banquet, Mr. Dong decided to wipe them all out at once.

"This person is so arrogant!" Ke Jihai laughed in anger, "Daring to assassinate a Royal Court official protected by primordial power, and wanting to kill two at once!"

"Mr. Dong is very powerful; I heard he has already killed many officials."

He Chunhua interjected and asked: "Why did you wait until the wolf-man under his command was captured by me before rushing out?"

"We didn't dare to come out early either." This person gave a bitter smile, "Mr. Dong's pet monster is fierce and bloodthirsty; when it gets irritable, it even kills its own partners, and it cannot cooperate with people during battle. We originally had ten people, but a unlucky one had his head bitten off and eaten by that ghost ape a few days ago."

Next, Ke Jihai interrogated him for more intelligence, such as how many remnants of the rebel party were still in Shi Huan and the capital, where they were hiding, and who the contact person was, but this person's status and identity were not high, and he knew very little inside information.

Fortunately, he still knew where his leading superior lived and what his name was.

Having obtained this information, Ke Jihai bid farewell to the He family: "Lord He, we shall meet again. We will probably see each other again very soon, if not on the battlefield, then in the imperial court."

He Chunhua cupped his hands in return: "I wish General Ke victory on the battlefield and great slaughter in all directions!"

"A good 'great slaughter in all directions'!" Ke Jihai laughed heartily, then said to He Lingchuan, "Kid, I think more and more highly of you. Let's have a drink when we meet again."

He Lingchuan nodded: "Good, I shall prepare good wine to await the General."

Ke Jihai then took the captives and left with a flourish; he had to travel day and night to rush back to the capital.

It is foreseeable that tomorrow the capital will again be in turmoil, and it is unknown how many heads will fall.

The wolf demon Lu Xin stayed behind. The wolf pack had tracked Dong Rui to here, and along the way, they had collected quite a bit of information, which was just right to explain to a few humans. Of course, He Lingchuan also promised it that as long as it stayed, there would be meat to eat.

"We like venison; mutton is also fine." They had just arrived at Lu Ming Garden and encountered many sika deer, so fat they couldn't even run fast. If it weren't for the worry of alerting the humans...

The hungry wolf began to drool. In the north, venison and rock mutton were both top-tier items, the favorite of every wolf.

"No problem, as long as you answer every question, there will be enough 'prime-age' mutton tomorrow morning."

The point everyone was most concerned about was the identity of the masked person, Dong Rui.

"Have you ever heard of a 'Demon Puppet Master'?"

The He family naturally shook their heads.

"Is it a Beast Tamer?"

"No, it is a Demon Puppet Master."

A Beast Tamer is also one of the types of mages, and there are many of them; their characteristic is naturally fighting by controlling beasts. But not a single Beast Tamer's spirit pet is as strange as Dong Rui's.

"He rarely appears in the Yuan Nation, so you know very little about him. This person uses unscrupulous means to capture powerful demons, carries out cruel and inconceivable modifications and soul-refining, turning them into puppets, and drives them to kill!" For the sake of meat, Lu Xin truly brought out twelve points of patience to explain, "As far as I know, he has committed crimes in at least seven nations, from high-ranking officials down to commoners, and even many famous mages have died at his hands."

"That ghost ape is the son of the Left Imperial Guard General of the Beijia Nation; I heard he was only fifteen years old when he was abducted by Dong Rui. For these ten-plus years, the Beijia Nation has always wanted to seek revenge on Dong Rui, but this person is exceptionally vigilant, and he will slip away at the slightest sign of trouble."

"In that case, that ghost ape is not even thirty years old?" He Yue asked curiously, "Demons generally have long lifespans, and their cultivation progress is slow. His strength and size look like he is at least three or four hundred years old."

"This is Dong Rui's ability. It is said that after drinking, he once boasted to others that when he was being hunted by enemies, he fell into an ancient immortal's cave secret realm, learned the ability to refine beasts and control beasts from there, and then carried it forward, melting the characteristics of many demon beasts into one, modifying monsters like the ghost ape, and even being able to increase cultivation by several hundred years out of thin air. But the price is that this process is extremely painful, and the modified demon loses its reason, its temperament is violent and extremely unstable, and it often goes mad. I don't know what means Dong Rui used to make the demon puppet obey orders."

"How many more demon puppets does Dong Rui have?"

"I heard that three usually appear; now that the young master has returned, it has become two." Lu Xin thought for a moment, "But whether Dong Rui has other demon puppets, no one is clear."

"Just now the captive said that Dong Rui was invited by Dong Haoye with heavy gold."

"Money cannot invite him." Lu Xin shook his head, "Only precious materials can move him."

He Lingchuan still had a puzzle: "In the previous battle, the ghost ape had already been suppressed by General Ke's primordial power; how did it suddenly burst with vigor and even grow two heads and four arms?"

Lu Xin frankly said he didn't know: "Logically speaking, the ghost ape couldn't grow that kind of image, and I don't know what Dong Rui actually did in the modification. Our young master also... has some strange changes."

Demons cannot turn into human form unless their original image is close to a human, such as an ape. That Lu Ze was modified and actually became the appearance of a wolf-man, and the Rock Wolf clan also felt deeply shocked.

"As far as we know, many nations have issued bounty warrants for Dong Rui, dead or alive. Of course, the reward for capturing him alive will be exceptionally generous."

He Lingchuan laughed: "The demon puppet he modified can actually resist primordial power; everyone wants to explore this secret."

This mystery has far-reaching influence, but Dong Rui, who carries a high bounty, is still committing crimes everywhere, remaining at large.

"Dong Rui returned empty-handed this time, two of the three major demon puppets were injured and one was lost; he will definitely seize the opportunity to retaliate against you."

He Lingchuan bared his teeth and smiled at the wolf demon: "What 'you' and 'us'? From now on, we are all on the same path."

Finally, they went down the mountain.

The He family returned to the inn, first settling Lady Ying, and the medicine ape Ling Guang took the initiative to come over to take care of He Lingchuan's injuries, and only then was it the turn of the father and his two sons to close the door and discuss.

He Lingchuan had long wanted to ask: "Tell me about the spirit pet contract." He had heard of the spirit pet contract, but he had never delved into it before.

He Yue laughed: "Didn't Uncle Hao raise a harrier demon named Little Gray? That is his avian pet, and they have signed a contract."

Speaking of this, He Lingchuan also felt strange: "Strange, why have I never raised a demon?"

He felt more and more that the original body seemed to have everything he wanted in Heishuicheng, but in fact, it was nothing at all.

It just had a bit of money and could put on airs with ordinary villagers.

"Almost no one in Heishuicheng raises spirit pets." In the countryside, demons are much fiercer than humans.

"You have the opportunity now." If you want better cooperation in the future, you must sign a one-on-one alliance between human and wolf, "The Rock Wolf wants to choose its own partner."

Next, He Yue gave his older brother a popular science lesson.

It turns out that whether it is a Beast Tamer or an ordinary cultivator raising a demon, the prerequisite is the spirit pet contract.

This is not a patent of modern people, but an invention of ancient immortals; they subdued powerful demon beasts and then used the power of the contract to restrain and control them. Later, the immortals gradually disappeared, but this set of methods remained.

Of course, the spirit pet contract has derived many versions to this day. The method Dong Rui uses to control his demon puppets must be closer to the original version where the master is strong and the pet is weak, while the "alliance" proposed by the Rock Wolf clan is a variant and weakened version of the spirit pet contract; the demon and the human have no subordinate relationship, their status is equal, and it only retains the most important rule in the spirit pet contract: the contract partners cannot harm each other, and under certain specific conditions, they can also share external damage. For example, this version of the alliance stipulates that under the premise that the contract partners are less than ten zhang apart, the human or the wolf can activate the "shared fortune and misfortune" special effect, transferring half of the damage to the contract partner to bear, with a time limit of twenty breaths.

In addition, He Chunhua also heard that the Rock Wolf itself is most famous for its endurance talent. If the contract partner and it are in the same space, it is mostly possible to share this characteristic.

Thinking about it, it makes sense; the wolf pack can run continuously for ten hours to chase prey, so its endurance is naturally outstanding.

"So-called endurance, that means good physical strength, right?" He Lingchuan rubbed his hands, "This is good, this is good. Can it be used at any time?!"

For example...?

(End of chapter)