The Lu family brothers were furious to the core, but Lu Jingzhou stared at the livestream screen, watching the little beast for a long time. “What on earth is this thing? It looks nothing like anything I’ve ever seen.”
Though Lu Jingzhou fancied himself well-traveled and knowledgeable, he had never laid eyes on, let alone heard of, the contracted beast on Lu Hao’s lap.
Lu Huan glanced over dismissively. “Isn’t that just a Level 1 pet beast?”
Indeed, at first glance, this ball of white fluff had a combat effectiveness of zero. If it wasn’t a worthless pet beast, what was it?
Right at that moment, Fang Jing—the worthless pet beast who had successfully claimed a human servant—was feeling thoroughly pleased with himself, chirping incessantly at Lu Hao.
Lu Hao, who didn’t speak beast language, wore a face full of question marks, though he had finally recovered from his initial shock and disbelief.
Having accepted reality, Lu Hao looked at the lively and adorable white ball of fluff on his knees. He cupped it in his palms and lifted it up to eye level. “What breed of contracted beast are you? Why have I never seen any introduction to you in the books?”
Fang Jing flicked his tail, let out a couple of chirps, and then collapsed flat in Lu Hao’s palm. A tiny stub of a hind leg barely peeked out from beneath his white fur to pat Lu Hao’s palm gently, before he immediately settled in to sleep with the absolute confidence that even the emperor of heaven couldn’t bother him now.
He couldn’t help it. After running for so long, he was genuinely exhausted. Besides, as a certified slacker, once the job was done, what else was there to do besides sleep?
A slacker’s two greatest pursuits in life: eating to sleep, and sleeping to eat.
Yet when Fang Jing woke up from his nap, there was no food waiting by his mouth.
What was going on?
Fang Jing opened his eyes and took a look. Good heavens, where in the world is this?
Why does it feel like I’m inside a pouch?
Fang Jing scrambled out with all his might, raised his head, and sure enough, caught sight of his human servant’s chin.
Oh my goodness, this feeling is entirely too blissful!
This was the human servant he had chosen. Even if he could only see his chin and his Adam’s apple, the man was still devastatingly handsome.
Fang Jing was in paradise. Just looking at this face every day would let him eat an extra catty of meat, and with an extra catty of meat, he could sleep an extra half-hour.
“Chirp!”
The familiar chirping sound abruptly reminded Lu Hao that he was no longer a single man. He was now a man with a contracted beast.
Lu Hao lowered his gaze to lock eyes for a moment with the little beast poking its furry head out of his pocket. On the surface, his expression remained completely unchanged, but only he knew how wildly his heart was fluttering right now.
So well-behaved, so adorable, so fluffy!
How could anything in the world be this cute, with such big eyes and fluffy fur?
Look at those huge eyes, those soft, rosy little lips, and that snowy white coat. Every single detail struck right at his heartstrings.
Seriously, I want to pet it!
Lu Hao harbored a secret he could never share with outsiders: he was a total fluff addict. Unfortunately, his status and position meant he couldn’t indulge like ordinary people by keeping a pet for amusement.
He was simply too busy. To keep a pet and neglect it was irresponsible, so he had never raised one before, but that does not mean he didn’t want to.
Suddenly finding himself the owner of such a cute and gorgeous pet, and one that was bound to him as a contracted beast, didn’t that give him a ready-made excuse to pet it to his heart’s content?
How utterly perfect!
“Awoken from your nap?” Lu Hao’s voice was extremely soft, as though he were afraid of startling the little fellow in his pocket.
Fang Jing chirped twice. Yes, a slacker doesn’t wake up unless he’s hungry.
Lu Hao looked up at the sky. Night was gradually closing in, and the depths of the dense forest were already devoid of any light. Yet above this clearing, the fading red glow of dusk still stained the horizon.
With the hour this late, chasing after the escaped Level 1 contracted beast was clearly unwise. Lu Hao simply decided to pitch a tent right where they were. The weather on Fire Cloud Star was volatile. Today was clear and sunny, but by midnight it could easily pour buckets. Pitching a tent was an absolute must.
“Be a good boy and wait here for me, alright? Once I’ve set up the tent, I’ll make you something to eat.”
“Chirp.” Fang Jing agreed.
Fang Jing figured that if he treated his human servant well, the human servant would definitely treat him well in return.
Enduring for a little while meant he would have food soon enough. Making a big fuss wasted too much energy, and he was too lazy to do anything that took effort and yielded no reward.
The viewers in Lu Hao’s livestream room had grown numb. Lu Hao had contracted a pet beast. That was an unalterable fact. Even though they felt a profound sense of regret, Lu Hao’s livestream really didn’t have any highlights left to watch.
So what if it was a cute little beast?
Could it possibly compare to the thrill of watching other military cadets conquer their own contracted beasts? Was there any excitement left?
In the interstellar era, martial might reigned supreme. No matter how cute a pet beast was, once it reached the battlefield, it was completely useless.
Of course, there were also people holding different opinions.
News of Lu Hao contracting a Level 10 pet beast spread like wildfire. Upon hearing the news, Tier 3 netizens swarmed into Lu Hao’s livestream room just to see for themselves whether this whole thing was actually true.
When they caught sight of the lazy, half-asleep ball of white fur resting on a military backpack bearing the insignia of the First Military Academy, the netizens blew up.
[What the heck, did the Third Young Master Lu really contract a useless beast? What is going to happen now? Did the Marshal already cry himself to sleep in the restroom?]
[I don’t know if the Marshal is crying, but I was squatting on the toilet and almost cried myself unconscious.]
[To the person above, are you serious? Don’t tell me you got knocked out by the smell of your own poop.]
[What should we do? Is there any way to break the contract? How could Young Master Lu contract a pet beast? A pet beast like that will just be an appetizer for the Zerg when they face them on the battlefield!]
[Break the contract? Researchers at the institute have been studying that for over two hundred years. Two centuries have passed. Have you ever heard of anyone successfully breaking a contract with their beast?]
[I don’t know if anyone else has heard of it, but I certainly haven’t. If contracts could be broken, it would be a blessing for soldiers who lose their contracted beasts. With something so major at stake, how could there be no news leaking out? Better forget about breaking any contracts.]
No matter what level of spiritual power a person possessed, whether it was F-rank or A-rank, they could only ever contract a single beast in their entire lifetime. Even if the contracted beast died, they could never form a bond with another.
[Lu Hao is the most outstanding among the three young masters of the Lu family in both spiritual power and ability ratings. He was the one most expected to inherit the position of Marshal, but now, Lu Hao’s advantages…]
[What is with those periods? Why am I suddenly smelling a conspiracy here?]
In ancient times, imperial princes and descendants would fight among themselves for the throne. Brothers built walls against each other, sons killed fathers, and fathers killed sons. These were no joking matters.
In an instant, the netizens’ imaginations ran wild, guessing every possibility under the sun. Without a doubt, the top suspects in everyone’s minds were none other than the Jiang and Fang families.
Jiang Yuci looked toward his elderly father, swallowing down the hesitant words he ultimately didn’t dare ask.
Jiang Xu looked at his older brother. “Bro, why are you looking at Dad like that? Don’t tell me you actually suspect that the business with Lu the Third was Dad’s doing?”
Jiang Yue was far from oblivious to the internet chatter. Being framed left him furious and outraged. “Idiots! These people must have nothing better to do with their lives. Even if your old man wanted to, the prerequisite is that my hands would have to be long enough to reach all the way to the First Military Academy!”
Jiang Yuci was startled. “Dad, you were thinking about it?”
“Thinking my foot!” Jiang Yue gnashed his teeth in anger. “These people speak without using their brains. Don’t you guys know the truth? Right now, the legions are desperately short on personnel. The Zerg reproduction rate is simply too terrifying. You can never kill them all, and ability users are getting scarcer by the day. Instead of us food sources uniting against the outside, you want to play games of power-struggling? I have better things to do than be idle. If they’re going to suspect me, I might as well suspect Old Fang from the Second Legion.”
The First Military Academy was responsible for defending the Zerg along the southern border of the capital star. Keeping the Zerg from invading kept Jiang Yue busy enough. He didn’t have the spare energy to plot those kinds of schemes. Other generals, however, certainly harbored such ambitions.
After all, when it came to the position of Marshal, who wouldn’t want it?
Meanwhile, Lu Hao, carrying the hopes of the entire Lu family, had finished setting up the tent. He placed his military pack inside, gently lifted the white ball of fluff sleeping on top of it, and set it upon his shoulder. “Don’t move around. I’m going to start a fire right now. If you wiggle around and fall into the firepit, that won’t be good.”
“Chirp.”
“How about I give you a name?”
“Chirp.”
“Does that mean you agree or you disagree?” Lu Hao asked softly, though he had no idea why he was being foolish enough to ask a pet beast such questions.
He knew that pet beasts generally had very low intelligence and couldn’t understand human speech at all.
Lu Hao genuinely liked his pet beast. He had never believed he needed a contracted beast to protect him, nor did he care what grade of beast he was bonded with. He had simply chosen to listen when his family told him to contract an Ice Tiger.
Yet after binding with this particular pet beast, he found that he really liked it.
He loved the sensation of touching its soft fur, loved the inexplicable joy that bloomed in his heart when he cupped the fluffy ball in his palms, and loved hearing those soft little chirps. In short, he liked it so much that he wanted to give his pet beast a proper name.
“Chirp.” Fang Jing chirped once more, thinking rather speechlessly, A single chirp definitely means yes, two chirps would mean no.
Lu Hao felt a mild headache coming on as he changed the subject. “Are you a herbivore or a carnivore?”
“Chirpy-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp.”
Fang Jing replied: I’m an omnivore. He wasn’t picky about meat or greens, and his primary selling point was being easy to feed.
“What does that mean?” Initially, Lu Hao had assumed this newly discovered species of his only knew how to make a single chirping sound. He hadn’t expected it to make so many. “You’re chirping like that, but I don’t understand. I don’t speak beast language. Why don’t you make your own choice? If you pick meat, I’ll roast it for you. If you pick fruit, I’ll slice it into pieces for you, alright?”
“Chirp.” Fang Jing agreed.
Fang Jing figured that if he treated his human servant well, the human servant would certainly treat him well in return.
Stepping down from Lu Hao’s shoulder, Fang Jing found himself in a dilemma as he stared at the red fruit and the chunk of raw meat wrapped in some kind of white material that his human servant had intentionally separated and placed before him.
Lately, he had been working far too hard, having to hunt for food every single day. He wanted to eat meat, but preparing meat was much too troublesome. It required hunting, cleaning, and roasting. Just thinking about the whole process made Fang Jing want to sleep.
Having arrived in this place half a year ago, Fang Jing had lost count of how many fruits he’d eaten. His mouth was practically losing its sense of taste. Yet this plump, bright red fruit also looked utterly delicious.
Adults didn’t make choices.
Fang Jing wanted both!
First, Fang Jing used his little paw to hook the red fruit closer to himself, then swept his tail out to roll the chunk of meat over.
He buried the items beneath his body like a brooding hen sitting on eggs, then turned his head, looking up at Lu Hao with pleading purple eyes as he let out a few chirps to signal that his choice was made.
He wanted to eat meat, and he wanted dessert fruit as well.
Gazing into those large purple eyes, Lu Hao felt his heart skip a beat. He tapped his index finger gently against his contracted beast’s back. “Are you eating both of them?”
“Chirp.”
That’s right. I want the meat and I want the fruit too.
“Alright then. Hand the meat over to me, and I’ll roast it for you.”
Lu Hao had only said it off the cuff. He didn’t actually expect a pet beast to understand him.
To his absolute surprise, just as he reached out to handle the firewood, a fluffy tail rolled a chunk of meat right against his hand.
Lu Hao: “…”
Was this a coincidence, or an accident?
Incredulous, Lu Hao looked down at Fang Jing, his heart hammering at an accelerated pace.
A high-intelligence pet beast?
He had heard that some pet beasts, after repeated training, could understand a few simple vocabulary words and execute basic commands based on instructions.
Such pet beasts often commanded high prices, enjoyed greater popularity, and many people took pride in owning one.
Yet he had never trained his contracted beast.
Could it be that this new species inherently possessed a higher intelligence than all other pet beasts?
Lu Hao grew excited. He deliberately didn’t take the meat, sitting down a little to the left and busying himself with his own tasks.
Soon enough, that furry tail wrapped around the chunk of meat once more and nudged the back of his hand.
Feigning innocence, Lu Hao pointed at a stainless steel plate set to the side. “Put the meat on the plate first. Once I’ve seasoned it later, it’ll taste even more fragrant and tender when I grill it.”
“Chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp.”
Fang Jing’s meaning: Whatever you say goes. You’re the human servant, you call the shots.
Watching with his own eyes as the pet beast placed the meat onto the plate, the shock within Lu Hao’s heart could only be described as turbulent waves crashing against the shore.
Bonding with a high-intelligence pet beast, was this supposed to be his terrible misfortune, or absolute beginner’s luck?