The day-and-night temperature difference on Fire Cloud Planet was extreme. After one crash of thunder after another, a heavy downpour poured down, and the temperature dropped instantly.
Lu Hao felt a chill wash over him, accompanied by the heavy sound of the rain pelting against the tent. Remembering that before falling asleep, he had also set up a tent for his second older brother’s contracted beast, he pulled up his blanket and drifted back to sleep with peace of mind.
In the middle of the night, Lu Hao was jolted awake by a valley-shaking tiger roar. Shortly after, his second brother’s contracted beast outside let out an imposing roar in response.
Lu Hao knew that was the ice tiger that had escaped earlier; its return was nine times out of ten to reclaim its territory.
Fang Jing heard the noise too. Awakened from his sleep, he let out a displeased hum.
Strangely enough, the moment Fang Jing’s hum subsided, the contracted beast outside the tent acted as if it had encountered a terrifying natural predator. It whimpered twice and crawled fearfully onto the ground, while the distant contracted beast turned tail and fled once more.
“There, there, it’s okay.” With the outside falling quiet, Lu Hao knew the danger had passed. Only then did he carefully tuck in the little white fluff ball that was sleeping pressed against his chest.
Lu Hao didn’t think too deeply into it. He assumed the ice tiger hadn’t approached because his second brother’s contracted beast was present, completely unaware that his second brother’s contracted beast was currently scared out of its wits as well.
Wild beasts possessed their own innate coercive aura. While humans couldn’t perceive it, for creatures, a mere scent was sometimes all it took to sense whether another was powerful or not.
The powerful coercion radiating from the tent just now was like a pebble dropped into a calm lake, stirring up layer upon layer of ripples that spread in all directions. The distant ice tiger had been frightened away by this very wave of coercion.
“Ji!”
Fang Jing half-opened his eyes, letting out a groggy chirp as his fluffy tail swayed from side to side, as if trying to comfort Lu Hao.
“What’s wrong? Don’t be afraid, I’m here.” Lu Hao turned over and manually adjusted Fang Jing’s position, pressing the little fellow tightly against his chest. Lowering his head slightly, he rubbed his chin against the top of Fang Jing’s head to let the half-asleep contracted beast know its master was right by its side and there was no need to be scared.
Lu Hao felt rather helpless; his Yuan-yuan was simply too clingy. Every time he tried to move the little fellow away, the moment he pulled him back, the creature would immediately chirp and snuggle right back in.
In the Interstellar Era, middle and high school were no longer three years, but four. As a sophomore, Lu Hao was already turning twenty-two.
At this age, most people had already started dating boyfriends or girlfriends, yet Lu Hao poured his heart and soul entirely into his academics and training. He hadn’t even held hands with a stranger, but when it came to taking care of his contracted beast, every gesture of his was brimming with meticulous care and consideration.
Soothed by the petting, Fang Jing let out a drowsy chirp and quickly fell back asleep.
Perhaps the sleeping him had no idea what he was chirping about. Maybe it was because in his dream, his human poop-scooper had torn apart several large platters of fragrant roasted meat for him, making him so happy he couldn’t help but want to shout out loud.
Seeing his contracted beast looking like a little glutton even in sleep, licking its lips with a tender pink tongue, Lu Hao smiled helplessly and muttered softly, “What a little foodie. So small in size, yet such a hearty eater. Yuan-yuan, what on earth are you?”
By the crack of dawn, the rain had yet to stop. On schedule, the live-streaming orb flew over from who knows where.
It was blocked outside the tent, while the human and beast inside were still sleeping soundly.
When Lu Hao finally woke up, it was already nine o’clock in the morning.
There was no help for it. Last night, terrified he might crush the white fluff ball that was stuck fast against him as it slept, he had been jolted awake several times. Once awake, he would become wide awake, taking a long time to drift off again, which led to him sleeping in this morning.
Looking at Fang Jing, the little guy was still sleeping sweetly. Even when Lu Hao got up, Fang Jing didn’t stir, curled up motionless under the blanket.
The rain outside was still pattering down. Lu Hao put on his raincoat and said to his second brother’s, Lu Huan’s, contracted beast, “Go on. Make sure to come back when you’re done eating.”
With those words, Lu Huan’s contracted beast gave a flying leap and vanished straight from Lu Hao’s line of sight.
On a rainy day, no matter how sharp a wild beast’s sense of smell was, it was hard to pick up the lingering scents left behind by other contracted beasts.
Finding a single contracted beast in such a massive forest was no easy task.
Even though it was difficult, Lu Hao didn’t want to give up. Even if he didn’t need another contracted beast, being able to bring an extra one back would be good. The other children of the Lu family didn’t have contracted beasts yet.
The higher the rank of a contracted beast, the harder it was for them to bear offspring. Take the Lu family, for example. They already owned several contracted beasts, but even after a dozen years, not a single baby ice tiger had been born.
Being able to bring back a masterless contracted beast carried self-evident importance for the family.
[Judging by the Third Young Master Lu’s posture, is he planning to bring the ice tiger back to Capital Star?]
[If it were you, wouldn’t you want to? Anyway, if it were me, I definitely would.]
[Me too. Who knows how many ice tigers there are on Fire Cloud Planet, and this one is an ice tiger the Third Young Master spent day and night searching for over half a month. Generally speaking, where there’s one ice tiger nearby, there won’t be a second one within a hundred miles. Giving up now would simply be too much of a pity.]
[Isn’t this move a bit too greedy? He already has a contracted beast of his own, yet he still wants to eat his fill and take everything else too? Where’s his shame?]
[What the person above said is so hilarious. This is called eating your fill and taking everything? This is being shameless? Watch your mouth. As far as I know, military academy students in past years have all done this. Or rather, not just military academy students, any other ability users who receive permission do it. Who visits Fire Cloud Planet without taking a bit of extra plunder? How come when it’s Third Young Master Lu, you have to make it sound so shameless?]
[Stop arguing, aren’t you guys curious where Student Lu’s contracted beast went?]
Most of the netizens following Lu Hao were current students. There was no help for it, because Lu Hao’s reputation as a study god and campus male god was simply too loud. Who wouldn’t want to seize this opportunity to catch a glimpse of his magnificent beauty, even if they weren’t in the same school?
People have diverse perspectives. Even if Lu Hao had heard these remarks, he wouldn’t have cared. Right now, he was busy tracking his contracted beast’s trail.
After Lu Hao had hurried through the forest for half a day, Fang Jing, whom he had placed inside a cloth bag and hung across his chest, finally woke up hungry.
“Ji.”
It was Fang Jing’s feeding time.
Hearing the soft, milky chirp coming from his chest, Lu Hao halted his running footsteps. After shaking the unavoidable water droplets off his hands, he unfastened his raincoat, unzipped the cloth bag, and pulled open a small gap.
Lowering his gaze, he unexpectedly locked eyes with a pair of large, round, innocent purple eyes.
In an instant, Lu Hao’s mood improved vastly, and the fatigue brought on by a whole morning of chasing tigers completely melted away.
For some reason, the moment he faced his contracted beast, Lu Hao’s tone would unconsciously soften a lot, coaxing it like a child. “You’re awake. Is Yuan-yuan hungry?”
“Ji.”
Fang Jing had a short neck, but that didn’t stop him from nodding. To get food, overcoming a little bit of difficulty was definitely something that should be done.
Seeing that Fang Jing actually knew how to nod, Lu Hao was surprised all over again. Last night, the little fellow only knew how to chirp endlessly without nodding or shaking his head in front of him. Could it be that the physical action of nodding was a new skill the little guy had unlocked today?
Knowing the little fellow was hungry, Lu Hao immediately found a cave, swept the inside clean, and set down his half-person-tall military pack before taking Fang Jing out of the cloth bag and placing him on top of the pack. “It’s a bit damp in the cave. Just stay on the pack and don’t run around blindly, you hear? Otherwise, your fur will get dirty.”
“Ji.”
Fang Jing couldn’t be bothered to run around blindly anyway. To him, if he could lie down, he would definitely never sit up, let alone run.
With heavy rain pouring outside the cave, it was very difficult to track the contracted beast. Lu Hao searched for a long time without finding even a single hair. Fortunately, along the way, he had run into a few wild fruit trees, so he had at least harvested something.
The firewood was all soaked and completely impossible to ignite. He had no choice but to let Lu Huan’s contracted beast catch a few fish in a nearby river.
The snow fish caught by the contracted beast were different from ordinary fish because they didn’t have a strong fishy odor, and eating them raw tasted pretty good.
After slicing up all the fish meat, Lu Hao even squeezed some lemon juice over it before picking Fang Jing up from the military pack. “Yuan-yuan, the rain is too heavy today, and there’s no dry firewood. Is raw fish sashimi okay? Oh right, I picked some wild fruit this morning too. It’s very sweet, sweeter than yesterday’s apple. Do you like it?”
“Ji.”
As long as it was edible, Fang Jing wasn’t picky. Someone waiting around for handouts didn’t have the luxury of being picky.
Fang Jing knew it. He was no longer that peerless prodigy in the cultivation sect who possessed extremely high sword-play attainments, was deeply favored by the sect, and had all the resources tilted in his favor.
Right now, he was just a salted-fish little beast who needed his human poop-scooper to wait on him. He accepted all comers and ate whatever was given. Only when the poop-scooper was happy and realized he was easy to raise would he avoid throwing him away.
Fang Jing sniffed around the edge of the plate. He truly didn’t smell any sickeningly fishy odor. He took a piece of fish meat into his mouth. Hmm, a bit sour, yet fresh and sweet. The taste was pretty good.
“Ji.”
Delicious.
Fang Jing was already hungry. With a flurry of devouring wind and wiping away clouds, in a short while, a whole plate of fish sashimi was finished.
After finishing, he still licked his lips with his small tongue, lingering for more, looking like a little foodie glutton.
Seeing this, Lu Hao continued slicing the fish. Last night, he had still underestimated the little fellow’s appetite. Right now, he was slicing fish sashimi until his hands were sore, yet the result was that however much he sliced, the little fellow ate that much, not leaving a single slice behind. In fact, his speed at slicing fish couldn’t even keep up with the other’s speed at eating.
“Yuan-yuan…” Lu Hao wanted to say that Yuan-yuan ate so much, but the words reached his lips and were swallowed back down.
If word got out that he couldn’t even afford to feed his own contracted beast, what would people say?
“Ji?”
What are you doing?
You called me and then stopped talking.
Being stared at by such a pair of large eyes like this, Lu Hao couldn’t quite take it and casually fabricated a lie. “Yuan-yuan, we’ll rest right here today. The rain is falling too heavily, making it inconvenient to track the contracted beast’s trail. I checked, and it’s likely to rain for the next few days. I’ll go catch some fish this afternoon to save for later. Be a good boy and wait for me in the cave, okay?”
Lu Hao didn’t know if the little fellow could understand such a long sentence, but he simply couldn’t help himself.
“Ji.”
Got it. He would sleep once he was full and go nowhere else.
Fang Jing kept his word. After polishing off a dozen or so snow fish weighing several catties each and eating a few wild fruits to freshen his mouth, he contentedly crawled into the makeshift little nest his poop-scooper had made for him.
Good heavens, life like this was simply unimaginable.
This was just too comfortable!
As expected, the little beasts were right. Having a human poop-scooper felt absolutely amazing!
Fang Jing fell asleep with a blissful smile.
Lu Hao didn’t stay idle. He had Lu Huan’s contracted beast continue searching for the ice tiger’s tracks while taking advantage of the lighter rain to head toward the riverbank.
Along the way, whenever he ran into edible wild fruits, Lu Hao didn’t let any of them go. There was no help for it, because Fang Jing’s appetite was simply too huge.
After hauling in over a dozen snow fish in a row, Lu Hao finally emerged from the river.
The audience in the live-streaming orb was left completely speechless.
Their Marshal’s Third Young Master was clearly an aloof and cold beauty who felt out of reach, yet when facing his pet beast, the way he spoke was so tender that even girls couldn’t help feeling jealous.
When Fang Jing woke up in a daze, he happened to hear his human poop-scooper talking.
Thinking the other person was speaking to him, he struggled to open his eyes, only to discover a screen floating in front of his poop-scooper.
What kind of gizmo was that?
Fang Jing let out a “ji” to draw Lu Hao’s attention. Seeing the human look over, he pushed off with his hind legs and executed a clean, crisp jump right into Lu Hao’s embrace.
Once inside his poop-scooper’s arms, Fang Jing discovered there were actually people on the screen. Curiously, he stretched out a paw to probe toward it, but alas, his legs were too short to reach at all.
Instead, because of this movement, Lu Hao instinctively opened his palm, letting Fang Jing’s soft little paw pad land right in the center of his hand.
The soft texture made Lu Hao unable to resist giving it a gentle squeeze. “Don’t move. Be a good boy, Yuan-yuan, and let me finish this video call first, alright?”
“Ji!”
Alright.
Fang Jing thought to himself that he was, after all, the most obedient contracted beast around.
His poop-scooper’s words, within reasonable bounds, had to be obeyed. If you didn’t listen, you weren’t a good boy.
“A-Hao, what is that white fluff ball in your arms?”
“It’s my contracted beast. Look, isn’t it pretty?” Lu Hao felt a rare impulse to show off.
He had never raised a pet from childhood to adulthood, and now that he finally had one, he was overjoyed. Slipping his hands beneath Fang Jing’s front legs, he lifted him up once more. “Zhinian, look, it’s so well-behaved.”