Chapter 217: The Timid Big Guys

So, he directly used his divine sense to communicate with the largest Earth-Armored Rhinoceros, conveying his intention to have it submit and guaranteeing that he would not harm them.

Lin Zhangqing had observed their behavior just now and knew that these two Earth-Armored Rhinoceroses were highly intelligent.

They would certainly understand the meaning he conveyed; now it was just a matter of whether it was willing to submit for the sake of its mate and three children.

Seeing that the big guy was still tightly curled into a ball and had no reaction to his words,

Lin Zhangqing could only convey once more that he would guarantee the safety of their family of five and would not let them be separated.

He also promised that when necessary, he could provide spiritual objects to help them advance to the second stage.

This time, there was finally some reaction; the curled-up body relaxed by half a turn, and it stretched out its slightly pointed head to observe Lin Zhangqing.

It looked quite funny, but Lin Zhangqing knew he couldn't laugh now, so he tried his best to hold it in.

He took a hundred-year Vermilion Fruit out of his storage bag, gestured with it, and then tossed it to the edge of its mouth.

The big guy stuck out its tongue, touched the Vermilion Fruit, and after feeling that there was no problem, it used its tongue to roll the fruit into its mouth in one go.

*Crack! * With a sound, the Vermilion Fruit was bitten and swallowed, and then there was no "then"; the big guy looked at Lin Zhangqing with longing eyes.

Lin Zhangqing suddenly realized that it was waiting for him to continue feeding it! He tossed another Vermilion Fruit to it; this time it didn't even need to test it, directly using its tongue to roll the fruit from mid-air into its mouth.

*Crack! * With a sound, it was bitten and swallowed, and then it continued to look at Lin Zhangqing with eager eyes.

This time, Lin Zhangqing did not feed it any more Vermilion Fruit, but instead communicated with it again using his divine sense: if it was willing to submit, it could often eat hundred-year Vermilion Fruit in the future, or even higher-grade spiritual objects.

Subsequently, to make them more convinced, Lin Zhangqing took out the Xuan Yuan Heavy Water Bottle, cast a spirit light shield on himself, and then extracted a cluster of Hundred Flowers Drunken Soul Wine from inside.

The effect this time was immediate; the big guy no longer curled up, its body unfolded directly, and it was about to rush over, so Lin Zhangqing immediately retracted the spirit wine back into the heavy water bottle.

He communicated with it again via divine sense, conveying that only by completely submitting would he give it the spirit wine from just now; if it was willing to submit, it should lie down directly and expose its belly to Lin Zhangqing.

The big guy did not immediately do as Lin Zhangqing asked, but instead licked the other Earth-Armored Rhinoceros beside it with its tongue, then leaned its head over; clearly, the two Earth-Armored Rhinoceroses were communicating with each other.

After a while, the other Earth-Armored Rhinoceros also unfolded its body and moved a distance closer to Lin Zhangqing.

Then both Earth-Armored Rhinoceroses lay down and exposed their bellies to Lin Zhangqing; by now, their intention was very clear, expressing with actual actions that they were willing to submit to Lin Zhangqing.

Unable to suppress his excitement, Lin Zhangqing recited the incantation for the Master-Servant Contract, then used the Golden Thread Escape Light Needle to prick his finger, forcing out a drop of essence blood containing his own spiritual energy, and dripped it onto the forehead of the Earth-Armored Rhinoceros he had communicated with first.

The essence blood was quickly absorbed into the Earth-Armored Rhinoceros's sea of consciousness, and he could immediately sense the existence of that big guy in his mind; through the contract, he also felt the waves of submission cautiously conveyed by the Earth-Armored Rhinoceros.

Seeing its cautious appearance, Lin Zhangqing felt that it was somewhat different from what was recorded in the book "Records of Spirit Beasts in the Qingyun Mountain Range."

It was not at all as fierce as described in the book; the record highly praised this guy, and judging by that, it seemed even the Swift Wind Thunder Leopard couldn't compare to it.

But now was not the time to think about that, so he immediately cast aside these messy thoughts.

Lin Zhangqing soothed the big guy through the contract and reached out to gently stroke its pointed head; it was quite smart, knowing to lower its scales when it saw Lin Zhangqing wanting to touch its head.

This made Lin Zhangqing quite gratified; he recited the Master-Servant Contract incantation again and contracted the other Earth-Armored Rhinoceros as well. Soon, he also sensed the existence of that Earth-Armored Rhinoceros.

This female Earth-Armored Rhinoceros was also cautious, likewise conveying a sense of submission; now Lin Zhangqing finally confirmed it.

This type of demonic beast was truly very timid; he didn't know why that *Record of Qingyun Mountain Range Spirit Beasts* would praise them so much.

However, he still followed the usual practice, soothed this big guy, reached out to stroke its pointed head, and then took out a Vermilion Fruit and placed it in front of it, which was immediately bitten and swallowed with a *Crack! * sound.

It seemed it had been waiting for Lin Zhangqing's Vermilion Fruit all along; after eating it, it looked at him with eager eyes again.

Seeing it like this, Lin Zhangqing couldn't help but laugh and gave it another one, so the treatment for both was the same. However, there was a new problem now: these big guys were omnivores; Lin Zhangqing could provide spirit fruits and some demonic beast meat.

But he didn't have that much of the metal and earth attribute spiritual ore that their bodies needed; these were all shiny spirit stones!

So the best choice was to leave them here first; they would naturally go and find the various metal and earth spiritual ores they needed.

In this way, Lin Zhangqing not only saved the spirit stones he would have spent buying spiritual ores for them, but he might even harvest quite a few ore veins; Lin Zhangliu would be blessed then.

After making up his mind, Lin Zhangqing felt he should give them all names to make it easier to summon them later.

Thinking that they were metal and earth attribute spirit beasts, he felt the names Jin Yi and Jin Er were good, matching their body colors very well; the largest one was called Jin Yi, and the slightly smaller one was called Jin Er.

After deciding, he told them the names through the contract; unexpectedly, these two big guys were quite happy and took the initiative to stretch out their heads to get close to Lin Zhangqing.

Seeing them like this, Lin Zhangqing liked them very much too.

And only now could Lin Zhangqing observe them more carefully; their body length was about one zhang two or three, with the thick, long tail accounting for about two-fifths of the body length.

The body height was probably a little over four chi, with thick and powerful limbs, and the scales all over the body were bright yellow, giving a sense of power at first glance.

People who didn't know would feel they were fierce and extraordinary, strong and powerful, but in fact, they were all shy and timid guys.

Suddenly remembering that there were three little guys in the spirit beast bracelet, he raised his hand and released them too; these three little guys had low cultivation and hadn't recovered yet.

Seeing them like this, Lin Zhangqing also released Lu Xiaoling. The sudden appearance of the Three-Colored Deer gave Jin Yi, Jin Er, and the others a fright.

Lu Xiaoling, having just come out, also scurried behind Lin Zhangqing to hide. Lin Zhangqing was speechless; why were the spirit beasts he contracted all so timid!

Communicating through the contract, he let Lu Xiaoling cast two Spring Return Techniques on each of the three little Earth-Armored Rhinoceroses; after receiving the treatment, they felt a bit better.

Subsequently, Lin Zhangqing gave Lu Xiaoling a Spirit Nurturing Pill as a reward, and then sent it back into the spirit beast bracelet.

Jin Yi and Jin Er also came to the side of the three little guys at this time, touching them with their heads, probably to comfort them.

Seeing these three little guys still looking sickly and listless, Lin Zhangqing knew he had to feed them the Hundred Flowers Drunken Soul Wine, otherwise the injuries on their souls would keep tormenting them.

He had no choice but to communicate with Jin Yi and Jin Er, telling them that he was going to take out spirit wine to treat the three little guys.

Then, he told them that the little guys would fall into a deep sleep, and this state would last for a short period, so they shouldn't be anxious and should just wait with peace of mind.

He cast a spirit light shield on himself again, followed by the Xuan Yuan Heavy Water Bottle, and extracted three small clusters of Drunken Soul Wine; this time he specifically increased the portion a little, which should be enough to heal the injuries on their souls and allow them to smoothly advance to the first-stage mid-grade.

Smelling the fragrance of the spirit wine, the three little Earth-Armored Rhinoceroses immediately came to life, but they were a bit timid and didn't dare to come over to Lin Zhangqing's side.

Lin Zhangqing didn't mind and sent the spirit wine to their front respectively, and it was immediately swallowed by them.

Soon they all fell to the ground and fell into a deep sleep; Jin Yi and Jin Er touched them lightly with their heads respectively.

Lin Zhangqing communicated with the two big guys again and soothed their emotions.

Thinking that they were omnivorous spirit beasts, Lin Zhangqing took out some demonic beast meat from his storage bag, cut it up, and fed it to them to divert their attention.

These two big guys must not have eaten meat for a long time, wolfing it down without any politeness; after a long while, they were finally full.

Only then did Lin Zhangqing communicate with Lin Zhangliu, letting it leave a spatial mark here, so it would be much simpler when he wanted to come over to see them in the future.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 218 =====