Chapter 446: Contracting Wu Bao

Chapter 446: Chapter 288: Contracting Wu Bao

Changning Village was just ahead.

The thundering footsteps of the Earthquake Beast mercilessly drowned out the faint wails of the villagers up ahead.

In a few more seconds, it would charge into the village and trample everything in its path. At this point, any action seemed futile.

Neither Su Zhi nor Tuoba Jing ordered their Pet Beasts to stop.

Even if it was useless, they couldn’t give up. Attacking the Earthquake Beast with all their might was the only thing they could do. The beast had already destroyed one village, and they couldn’t just stand by and watch another suffer the same fate.

‘But this can’t go on forever…’

“Huh?”

Just as he was struggling with what to do, Su Zhi saw Suspended Sand swirl around him. Yu Bao had activated its Sand Manipulation Technique and was flying toward the Earthquake Beast.

The moment it reached its highest point, Yu Bao activated Thick Earth Golden Might. A brilliant Golden Light instantly enveloped its body, causing the surrounding sand to glow faintly like fireflies.

“CLARA!”

The Earthquake Beast opened its abyssal maw, its roar devoid of any reason.

Su Zhi subconsciously wanted to recall Yu Bao to his Beast Taming Space, but he suddenly remembered the scene where Yu Bao had controlled the Earthquake Beast before.

Just like last time, Yu Bao pushed its Thick Earth Golden Might to the absolute limit its body could sustain.

In truth, Yu Bao wasn’t confident either.

At the very beginning of the fight, it had tried to control the Earthquake Beast just like before, but it had failed. Looking back, it was most likely because the beast was being controlled by another entity, rendering its own intervention ineffective.

It was like someone else had already taken its spot.

‘But if Su Zhi’s theory is correct, and that other entity has already “logged off” from the Earthquake Beast, can I control it again like before?’

Yu Bao didn’t know.

But it had to try!

The distance between them was now minuscule. The Earthquake Beast could swallow Yu Bao whole in a single breath.

Despite its fear, Yu Bao stared directly into that bottomless maw, its gaze unwavering for even a moment.

‘Look at me, you son of a bitch!!!’

A miraculous scene unfolded: the Earthquake Beast’s mouth, already wide open and ready to snap shut, froze in place as if petrified.

The deafening footsteps came to an abrupt halt. The Earthquake Beast stopped and lowered its massive head toward Yu Bao.

“Clara,” the Earthquake Beast rumbled, a submissive growl.

‘It actually worked…’ A smile spread across Su Zhi’s face as he caught up, having run all this way behind his Pet Beasts.

Just then, a wave of inexplicable fatigue washed over his mind.

The battle was over anyway. Su Zhi heaved a long sigh of relief and simply let the exhaustion take him. He never expected his vision to go black as he plunged directly into a deep sleep…

[Assignable Attribute Points (Yu Bao): 0.15…0.30]

[Assignable Attribute Points (Shan Bao)…0.20]

[Assignable Attribute Points (Wu Bao): …]

·

“Woof.”

“Just let our young friend get some proper sleep. He’s had a hard journey, being displaced all this time.”

“Chirp chirp.”

“Woof woof!”

“Is this our young friend’s mobile phone? But he said it needs Electric Energy to work. It should be ‘dead’ by now, right?”

“Hiss hiss~”

“Have Zi Lu help charge it? That idea seems plausible…”

‘What the hell? Don’t do that!’

Su Zhi, who had still been a bit drowsy, heard the conversation by his ear and shot up in fright.

He was in Tuoba Jing’s cabin, lying on Tuoba Jing’s bed. Tuoba Jing was sitting by the bedside, with Yu Bao next to him, holding Su Zhi’s phone in its mouth.

Seeing Su Zhi awake, Yu Bao quickly placed the phone in front of Wu Bao and even gave it a little nudge with its foot, as if to say it had nothing to do with it.

“Quick to pass the buck, aren’t you!”

Su Zhi laughed in exasperation, pocketed his phone, and gave Yu Bao a flick on the head.

Tuoba Jing also burst out laughing, and the cabin filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

“I’m afraid I don’t have the ability to charge your phone, young friend. But it’s good that you’re all right.”

“Thank you, Senior. How long was I out?”

“Not long. Just a day and a night.”

“Oh, that’s… what? A day and a night??”

“Pet Synchronization is highly draining on both Spiritual Power and stamina. I can see you don’t use it often. Suddenly using it at such an intensity would naturally cause your body to go into shock.”

Tuoba Jing said leisurely, “A day and a night is actually short. The fact that you weren’t out for three to five days means your constitution is quite good.”

“Is that so…” Su Zhi scratched his head.

He rarely used this move. He’d seen Liu Yuhang use it as easily as drinking water and thought it was simple. He never expected the side effects to be so terrifying.

‘Now that I think about it, Liu Yuhang is the terrifying one. He’s only a little tired after using it and rarely even faints. What kind of absurd constitution do you need to pull that off…?’

As he was thinking, Su Zhi suddenly froze. He looked at Wu Bao, his face a mixture of incredible surprise and joy.

“Does that mean… Wu Bao and I have…?”

Tuoba Jing smiled gently. “Why ask me about such things? As a Beast Tamer and a Pet Beast, you two would naturally know best.”

Su Zhi nodded, trembling, and mobilized his Beast Taming Space according to the familiar feeling.

The whole process was exceptionally smooth. As Su Zhi pictured his Beast Taming Space enveloping Wu Bao, the pet was quickly wrapped in a deep blue radiance, vanished, and was transported into the Beast Taming Space.

As if in disbelief, Su Zhi hurriedly summoned Wu Bao again.

The deep blue Light Array flashed once more, and Wu Bao materialized upon it.

The human and his pet looked at each other, then embraced, tears streaming down their faces.

“Wu Bao!”

“Wuuu!”

‘I did it! I really did it!’

Wu Bao’s cries were ones of vindication. After months of being a ‘freeloader,’ it had finally made its comeback. It was so damn hard!

But beyond his delight, Su Zhi was more surprised than anything.

“My Tier Five Beast Taming Space, which has been dormant all this time, actually awakened without any warning? Teacher Zhou told me to wait until I was an adult to even think about Tier Five and not to aim too high…”

“The awakening of a Beast Taming Space is not necessarily related to age.”

Tuoba Jing smiled gently. “Your teacher wasn’t wrong. Most people do need to wait until adulthood for a chance to advance to Tier Five. After all, breaking through to Tier Four before adulthood is already as rare as a phoenix feather.

“I don’t know if later generations have reached a definitive conclusion, but in my experience, the speed of a Beast Taming Space’s advancement should be related to the number of battles a Beastmaster faces. Most people rarely face intense combat before adulthood, so they don’t progress too quickly. Think about it: haven’t all the accomplished young people you know faced high-intensity competition from a young age?”

“That’s true,” Su Zhi nodded.

Of course, this was only based on experience. Even the Divine Strategy Alliance had yet to prove a connection between the two.

But as Luo Sen said, sometimes science needs intuition, not just rigorous and logical proof, to break a stalemate.

Tuoba Jing cupped his fist and said with emotion, “In any case, congratulations on breaking through to a Tier Five Beast Taming Space, young friend. To reach such heights at your age… once you leave this Secret Realm, your future will surely be immeasurable.”

“Senior, you flatter me.”

Su Zhi quickly waved his hands, then immediately sat up straight. “But let’s get back to the matter at hand. Senior, the current situation is extremely unfavorable for us. If we let those Earthquake Beasts evolve, we’ll soon find ourselves in an unprecedentedly passive position!”

“In fact, it’s far more serious than you think.”

Tuoba Jing’s brows furrowed, and he let out a long sigh.

“In all my years, I have never heard of an Earthquake Beast evolving. Previously, when they attacked people, it was mostly for destruction and intimidation. Although tragedies often occurred, life could still go on. But tonight… an entire village was utterly annihilated by an Earthquake Beast.”

Su Zhi was taken aback for a moment. “Senior, you mean…?”

“Perhaps ‘It’ has been plotting this for a long time and has decided now is the time to flip the table. Or perhaps some outside interference has disrupted ‘Its’ plans, making ‘It’ feel uneasy and pressured. In any case, the other party doesn’t intend to drag this out any longer.

“The evolution of the Earthquake Beasts is just one sign. Perhaps soon, a far more irresistible catastrophe will completely destroy everything here, even the Secret Realm itself. And that may be the moment ‘It’ descends upon the Current World.”

“…”

Silence enveloped the cabin.

It wasn’t until Tuoba Jing took a sip of tea and set the cup down on the table with a soft clink.

“What are your thoughts, young friend?”

“No matter what, we absolutely cannot let these things break out of the Secret Realm.”

Su Zhi took a deep breath.

“They want to flip the table? Then we’ll flip the table too. Things are getting difficult? Then let’s just end it!”

“I feel the same way. However, a struggle isn’t child’s play; you can’t wrap it up just by saying pretty words. A struggle means bloodshed. A struggle means sacrifice.”

After speaking, Tuoba Jing suddenly looked at Su Zhi.

“Young friend, are you afraid of death?”

“I am.”

“If you’re afraid of death, why go?”

“Because there are some things you have to do, even if you’re afraid of death.”

Su Zhi said calmly.

The two looked at each other, and the corners of their mouths curled into smiles.

“See you tomorrow night, young friend.”

“See you tomorrow night, Senior!”

The two Beast Tamers bid each other farewell, and Su Zhi stood up and walked toward the door.

The young man’s expression was calm, his gaze resolute. Every step he took was firm and forceful.

‘Actually, I don’t have to walk like this. It’s just that I feel it looks pretty cool. Paired with the lines I just said, it maxes out the badass-o-meter, you know…’

He opened the door—

And then, seeing the mountain-like Earthquake Beast right outside, Su Zhi froze on the spot, his firm and forceful steps turning to jelly.