Chapter 59

Of course not; here the spiritual energy is abundant, and the spatial fluctuation energy is also great—it's a place I like to stay. Before I come of age, I won't leave this place.

"Then... how much longer until the maiden comes of age?" After asking this, Wei Yuning felt his question was strange, as if he were about to do something bad.

"Seven years!"

Wei Yuning breathed a sigh of relief; seven years is enough for many things to happen. Even if the Emperor Butterfly leaves without a word by then, the sect would hardly blame him for it.

He now understood the calendar calculation method of the cultivation world; if not specifying a particular world, basically everyone uses the Primordial World calendar as the standard, and most worlds, in their initial construction period, also take the Primordial World calendar as a reference standard, so even if there are differences, they won't be too large.

"Okay, sure, then how can we sign a battle pet contract?"

"The usual battle pet partner contract has little binding force; to show trust, I hope to sign a life-sharing contract with you." The maiden said solemnly.

"Life-sharing contract? How do we sign it?" Wei Yuning asked. Actually, even if he didn't know how to sign a battle pet partner contract, let alone a life-sharing contract he had never heard of.

"Hmm, you just need to provide a bit of blood; I'll handle the rest." The maiden said expressionlessly.

Wei Yuning hesitated only a moment, then agreed. If the Emperor Butterfly truly meant him harm, he basically had no ability to resist, so regardless of her intentions, he had no right to refuse; he might as well fully cooperate.

He drew a green short sword and looked at the maiden opposite. She nodded, extending the tip of the extremely long black spear toward Wei Yuning. Wei Yuning nicked his finger, pressed it against the spear tip, and the fresh blood contacting the spear was immediately sucked into the spear, disappearing; the spear then returned to black.

The maiden closed her eyes, pondered for a moment, then opened them and actually nodded and smiled at Wei Yuning.

"Can we begin?" Wei Yuning asked, unable to help himself seeing the maiden's strange smile.

"Not in a hurry; let me sense your life aura a bit more."

After a few more minutes, just as Wei Yuning grew impatient, the maiden spoke again: "It turns out your body's purity can rival an innate spiritual body; no wonder you can directly enter my space. Unlike a spiritual body with a single talent, you can also cultivate normally. Although your spiritual roots aren't great, they are still extremely rare. Signing a life-sharing contract with you might even let me take advantage! Hehe!"

Wei Yuning didn't understand what the maiden was saying, so he also didn't know what to say.

"Alright, let's start signing the contract now!" the maiden said.

A mass of blood floated out from the spear tip; however, this mass of blood was more than twice the size of the blood Wei Yuning had contributed earlier, obviously containing a portion of the maiden's blood as well.

"Great Primordial Lord, I, descendant of the World Butterfly, leader of the Colorful Butterfly Clan, Bao Xiang, am willing to sign a life-sharing contract with the owner of this blood, effective from today until either party voluntarily withdraws!" After finishing the oath, the maiden winked at Wei Yuning.

"Wasn't it supposed to be seven years?" Wei Yuning looked at the maiden and asked.

"I've changed my mind; anyway I won't voluntarily withdraw, and if you want to withdraw you can do so freely, so this contract isn't really binding for you!" the maiden said.

Women are indeed unreasonable, even if it's a female spirit beast. However, the new contract is no disadvantage to him, so he naturally agrees as well.

"Great... Primordial Lord, I, Wei Yuning... am willing to sign a life-sharing contract with the leader of the Colorful Butterfly Clan, Bao Xiang, effective from today until either party voluntarily withdraws!" Wei Yuning echoed the maiden's manner of swearing.

Just after he finished the oath, a feeling of bloodline interdependence arose between them, and besides that, there were no other sensations.

"Alright, the life-sharing contract benefits both of us; although the chance of injury is doubled, we can, at a critical moment, sacrifice part of one party's lifespan to revive the other once, which amounts to an extra life-saving measure. Moreover, if one party is willing, they can let the other temporarily use their ability." Seeing the oath completed, the maiden then explained.

"So what now? Can I take you out?" Wei Yuning asked.

"After signing the contract, we two can mutually use each other's identity information, so we can naturally go out. This sect has many experts, and I also want to stay here a few more years, so you'd better first tell the sect's people that I'm willing to sign a battle pet agreement with you; they'll surely be happy, and later it'll be more convenient to bring me out via the Beast Ring." Bao Xiang said.

"Alright, let's do that!" Wei Yuning said.

Since Wei Yuning went behind the artificial hill, people seemed to have vanished, with not a hint of abnormal sound. Hong Feng felt a bad suspicion arise. The Emperor Butterfly, as a hybrid descendant of the sect's totem object, is inherently extremely mysterious; although it has propagated for three generations in the Cloud Concealment Sect, it has never yet signed a battle pet contract with any sect disciple. Outsiders' knowledge of it is limited to its steel-like body and sharp mouth spike—these are lessons bought with disciples' lives.

Because of the Emperor Butterfly's special nature, even though it has little use, the sect still treats it like a treasure and raises it, also providing its kin, the Colorful Butterflies, with a special growth environment.

"It's over, it's over; if Qing Mo meets trouble, that'll be a headache!" After a while, Hong Feng's heart felt a bit panicked; he regretted letting Qing Mo come in to touch the Emperor Butterfly.

Leaving aside the Moon Badger breeding base run jointly by the Spirit Beast House and Qing Mo, the loss of benefits is still minor; the key is Qing Mo's identity—he is a disciple of the sect's senior elder Tai Chong, and had even been noticed by Old Ancestor Dao Min.

After waiting a while longer, Wei Yuning still hadn't returned.

Hong Feng gritted his teeth, decided to go personally check; if something really happened, it would at least be an explanation. He had just walked to the pond's edge when a figure appeared from behind the artificial hill—it was Wei Yuning.

He swaggered over, making a 'thud-thud' sound, with no intention of hiding his presence.

Wei Yuning suddenly saw Hong Feng rushing out from behind the trees, and was startled instead, saying, "Uncle Master, you can't just appear like that; you'll scare people to death!"

Hong Feng grabbed Wei Yuning's arm and hurried toward the exit, lowering his voice as he walked: "What's going on? Did you see the Emperor Butterfly?"

"I saw it!"

"You saw it? It… is asleep?"

"No."

"No? Then why are you only coming back now?"

"The Emperor Butterfly and I hit it off; it intends to sign a battle pet contract with me!" Wei Yuning said. As he spoke, he stared intently at Hong Feng's eyes, trying to discern some clues. The sect's attitude toward the Emperor Butterfly is key to whether it can come out.

"Really? That's great!" Hong Feng jumped up happily, showing no unusual expression.

"Really, it communicated with me via divine sense, telling me just that. However, it wants to sign an equal partner battle pet contract, not a compulsory one. Since I'm not a Spirit Beast House disciple, I came out first to ask for your opinion, Uncle Master!" Wei Yuning said.

"Except for the fact that, for safety reasons, some flying mounts are compulsory battle pets, most spirit beasts usually sign partner contracts, which is completely fine. The Emperor Butterfly is very picky about partners; I didn't expect it to not reject you—this is fate! Delay brings change, so go back now and sign the partner contract immediately. Here, this is a Nine-tier Beast Ring, which can store any contracted spirit beast in this world. The Emperor Butterfly's origins are mysterious, and the sect doesn't even know its exact rank, so this is the safest." Hong Feng said eagerly, at the same time producing a golden Beast Ring.

"Alright, I'll go back now!" Wei Yuning said. He was also very happy, never expecting things to go so smoothly.

The battle pet contract naturally doesn't need to be signed. The Beast Ring is a unique space belonging to spirit beasts, where they can enter to rest. Meanwhile, the Beast Ring is engraved with a Spirit Gathering Formation; spirit beasts inside can sleep while absorbing spiritual energy. The higher the Beast Ring's rank, the faster it absorbs surrounding spiritual energy. Thus, for spirit beasts, the Beast Ring is not a harmful restrictive magic item, but rather an excellent cultivation ground. This is also one of the reasons many spirit beasts are willing to sign partner contracts with humans.

This Nine-tier Beast Ring indeed proved useful; the Emperor Butterfly turned into a golden light and vanished into the Beast Ring. The contract between Wei Yuning and the Emperor Butterfly maiden is equal, so the Emperor Butterfly can naturally come and go from the Beast Ring as it pleases.

When Hong Feng saw the sleeping spirit butterfly phantom on the Beast Ring, he let out a long sigh of relief.

"It's really true! The Emperor Butterfly has also become the sect's battle pet! Qing Mo, you've done a great deed!" Hong Feng exclaimed with a beaming smile.