Having eaten his fill, Yuanyuan slept straight through until noon the next day before waking up hungry.
“Zhinian, over here, chase…”
As soon as he woke up, Yuanyuan heard the panting voice of his personal poop-scooper.
“Ji?”
What happened?
“Yuanyuan…”
Seeing that Yuanyuan was awake, Lu Hao paused his sprinting movements. “Is Yuanyuan hungry? Can you wait a little bit? Let me help Zhinian catch the fire fox first, and then I will make you something to eat.”
This fire fox was one he and Xie Zhinian had chased together after meeting up this morning, and they had been running after it for the better part of the day.
The fire fox was small in stature, highly intelligent, and possessed the intelligence of a teenager in human terms, making it a master of escape.
The two ice tigers he brought had teamed up with Xie Zhinian’s contracted beast, and they had managed to force the fire fox into this valley.
To say that the two of them plus three contracted beasts were exhausted and nearly out of stamina was an understatement; even the fire fox had slowed down. If they gave up now, all their previous efforts would go to waste.
Yuanyuan couldn’t understand why his poop-scooper hadn’t woken him up, choosing instead this exhausting and time-consuming method of pursuit.
The fire fox fleeing ahead was now barely visible. At that moment, Lu Hao lowered his head, running while whispering in Yuanyuan’s ear using a voice only the two of them could hear. “Yuanyuan, can you lend me your bracelet?”
His deep voice poured into the ear canal along with the howling wind whistling past. Whether it was because they were too close or for some other reason, Yuanyuan shuddered all over. That familiar yet unfamiliar sensation, like being struck by a tiny bolt of heavenly lightning, returned. His ears tingled and his body went soft.
The poop-scooper’s voice sounds so nice!
“Ji.”
Yuanyuan’s ears twitched. He buried his head, nuzzling against Lu Hao’s chest, let out a happy chirp, and then zipped back into his cloth bag to retrieve the bracelet from his portable space.
His portable space wasn’t a ring; rather, it was a small world he had carved out using all kinds of heavenly treasures and an immense amount of energy. This space existed solely within his sea of consciousness. The items inside were numerous and miscellaneous, mostly gifts offered to him by others or congratulatory presents given after his breakthrough.
Yuanyuan hadn’t sorted through them much, but he roughly remembered what was inside. The bracelet he had given to Lu Hao was called the Beast-Taming Bracelet, given to him as a gift by an elder of the Beast-Taming Sect.
“Ji.”
Yuanyuan chirped, holding the Beast-Taming Bracelet out with both paws toward Lu Hao.
“Thank you, Yuanyuan.”
Carrying such a precious item on his person meant that if he lost it in a forest this massive, finding it wouldn’t be easy. Lu Hao didn’t feel secure leaving it elsewhere, which was why he had let Yuanyuan keep holding it.
With the bracelet in hand, Lu Hao didn’t dare delay. Channeling his spiritual energy into the bracelet, he immediately gave it a shake.
Ding-ling…
Woo…
Under the suppression of the bell’s sound, Lu Hao’s two contracted beasts were caught off guard and lunged forward several meters from the momentum.
Not to mention the ice tigers, but right then, even the contracted beast brought by Xie Zhinian stumbled outward, while the pursued fire fox could no longer run and collapsed fearfully onto the ground, emitting a bizarre fox-like cry.
Fear, terror, reluctance, anger…
Xie Zhinian was completely dumbfounded, staring with wide eyes at the several contracted beasts sprawled on the ground as his eardrums vibrated. “A-Hao, what are they doing?”
If he hadn’t heard wrong, the abnormal behavior of these contracted beasts all happened right after hearing the bell sound, and his friend was still continuously shaking the bracelet on his hand.
Xie Zhinian wasn’t foolish enough to think Lu Hao was bored and shaking the bracelet just for fun.
“Don’t ask questions right now. While the fire fox can’t resist, hurry up and form a contract with it. If it gets away, it will be very hard to chase down again.”
Xie Zhinian had been hunting this fire fox for several days. Fire foxes were naturally vigilant creatures; because Xie Zhinian hadn’t managed to catch it before, it had grown wary of him, and it took him days of searching afterward just to find it again.
If it escaped again, they would have to leave and return to Capital Star in just a few days, and by then, Xie Zhinian would likely return empty-handed.
Lu Hao knew very well that once the bracelet in his hand was exposed, it would inevitably attract the attention of various factions, but he had no choice.
This treasure had to be put to its maximum use.
Xie Zhinian didn’t dare waste time. He hurried forward and formed a contract with the fire fox before it could resist or escape.
Once the contract was complete, both Xie Zhinian and the fire fox were utterly exhausted.
Human and fox sat limply on the ground. Lu Hao put away the bracelet and stepped forward. “Do you still have the strength to leave this place? It’s not far from the deep forest area. Let’s find a place to rest and eat something first, and then we’ll go look for Lin Shen.”
They only had three days left before leaving Fire Cloud Planet. Neither Lin Shen nor Pei Sui had managed to video-call Lu Hao, showing that they were overwhelmed and simply didn’t have the time.
Of course, besides having yet to contract a beast, Lu Hao couldn’t think of anything else that could keep them so overwhelmed.
“Alright, I can manage.” Xie Zhinian was indeed exhausted, but he knew this was no time to rest.
As usual, Lu Hao’s two contracted beasts went out to hunt while Xie Zhinian found a water source. After Lu Hao started a fire, he finally took Yuanyuan out of the cloth bag.
Having taken a second nap, Yuanyuan was already starving. Seeing that Lu Hao had already started the fire, based on past habit, he knew food would be ready soon.
Yuanyuan looked left and right. “Ji!”
Where’s the meat?
Where is the meat?
Lately, he had been spoiled so thoroughly by Lu Hao that his palate had grown picky; without meat, his meals didn’t taste good at all.
After half a month of getting along, Lu Hao roughly understood his contracted beast’s temperament. “I’ve already sent the contracted beasts out to hunt. It’ll be ready soon. Are you starving? Do you want to eat some fruit to pad your stomach first? I just picked these; they’re very fresh and already washed.”
“Ji.”
Yuanyuan took a bite right out of Lu Hao’s hand and discovered that the wild fruit was unexpectedly sweet, so he grabbed it with his paws and crunched through it.
The fist-sized wild fruit was reduced to a mere core in under half a minute.
Xie Zhinian, resting against a tree trunk nearby, watched the interaction between human and beast and finally couldn’t help himself. “A-Hao, is it really okay for it to eat like this?”
Lu Hao shook his head, letting Yuanyuan rest on his arm while wagging its tail contentedly, using one hand to smooth down the white fur on its back that had gotten ruffled during sleep.
“Yuanyuan has a rather large appetite.”
Lu Hao timely modified the phrasing to avoid any exaggeration. He remembered that his contracted beast was still a shy little beast and needed to maintain some pride.
“Right, what was up with that giant-mouthed beast just now?”
When Lu Hao had appeared, a giant-mouthed beast had swooped down from the sky and swallowed the live-streaming orb following Xie Zhinian in a single gulp.
Xie Zhinian didn’t believe that a massive beast chasing after Lu Hao had gotten full just from eating one live-streaming orb.
“Probably just passing by by accident.” Until he returned to the military academy, Lu Hao didn’t want to expose Yuanyuan’s uniqueness, so he had to play it off.
Xie Zhinian didn’t say anything further, but after witnessing Yuanyuan, a fist-sized white fluff ball, devour two water deer, he suddenly realized that this thing was nowhere near a Level 10 pet beast.
Whose pet beast could eat this much?
At least he had never seen one.
With everyone fed and watered, Lu Hao placed Yuanyuan back into the cloth bag and patted it gently. “Yuanyuan, go to sleep if you’re tired. Sorry, the next two days might be a bit busy, and I won’t be able to play with you.”
“Ji.”
Yuanyuan was very understanding. He stretched his tail out of the cloth bag, brushed it across the back of Lu Hao’s hand, and then pulled it back inside.
“Yuanyuan is such a good boy.” Looking at the white fluff ball curled up obediently inside the cloth bag, Lu Hao felt his heart melt completely.
Xie Zhinian had many questions on his mind, but who knows if there were other military academy students nearby?
Even walls have ears, after all.
Lin Shen had been lying low not far from a herd of triangular rhinoceroses for a long time. Perhaps knowing that these times were turbulent, the adult triangular rhinos kept the baby triangular rhinos closely surrounded in the middle.
Lin Shen had no choice, thinking that if there were no solitary triangular rhinos by the last day, he would just have to take a gamble.
Before he could take his gamble, however, Lu Hao and Xie Zhinian arrived.
For reasons unknown, whatever Lu Hao did caused a group of triangular rhinos to lie flat on the ground glaring angrily at them while emitting low grunts.
“Lin Shen, Zhinian, how many beast-locking collars do you guys have?”
Xie Zhinian: “I brought one.”
“Three.” Lin Shen’s face turned a bit red. Most people only brought one, and even a genius like Lu Hao only brought one, yet he had brought three. Just how confident was he in himself?
Lu Hao didn’t mock Lin Shen. “Pick three triangular rhinos. Once you’ve chosen, quickly contract the others.”
After Lin Shen finished his contractions, Xie Zhinian handed over his beast-locking collar. “I have another one here. Pick one more triangular rhino to take with you.”
“Don’t you need it?”
“I don’t need it. The fire fox I contracted hasn’t grown up yet, so I have no use for it.”
Lin Shen expressed his thanks and picked another triangular rhino. Once everything was successfully completed, he wanted to ask Lu Hao some questions, but Xie Zhinian stopped him. “Alright, whatever questions you have, let’s talk about them when we get back to the academy. For now, let’s go find Pei Sui. We have to head out the day after tomorrow morning.”
As for Pei Sui’s side, things were even more miserable. Fire lions weren’t that easy to contract; his waterproof and fireproof school uniform was slashed with several cuts, showing that he hadn’t had an easy time in his clashes with the fire lion.
As soon as Lu Hao arrived, Pei Sui’s live-streaming orb naturally couldn’t be kept. Four people, four live-streaming orbs. Who knew if the giant-mouthed beast could even digest them all?
Upon learning that Lu Hao had contracted a Level 10 pet beast, Pei Sui’s expression matched Lin Shen’s.
His vision went dark, feeling a sudden urge to faint, accompanied by a head full of question marks and sheer disbelief.
Both of them desperately wanted to ask something, but Xie Zhinian secretly shook his head at them, signaling that all questions would be discussed once they returned to the academy.
This time, over 6,000 military academy students headed to Fire Cloud Planet together, but not every student received attention.
Those followed closely by the general public were mostly government officials’ children or the children of the wealthy.
Naturally, many netizens followed Xie Zhinian and Lin Shen, but before they could see the few of them contract their beasts, their live-streaming orbs were swallowed.
If Xie Zhinian’s live-streaming orb being swallowed could be chalked up to an accident, and Lin Shen’s live-streaming orb being eaten could be coincidence, what about Pei Sui’s live-streaming orb?