The Charm of Soul Pets

“Liao Yu, do you know of Li Xu’s branch?” asked Chu Mu.

“Why would I not know? That is the strongest branch of our Cloud Realm’s Li Family. If things go as expected, Li Xu will be the next city lord.” said Liao Yu.

“What experts do they have?” continued asking Chu Mu.

“Experts… that isn’t easy to say. Li Xu himself is one of the top three people in our Cloud Realm and his strength is even stronger than Border Commander Wu Zhen.” said Liao Yu.

Chu Mu obtained a rough understanding of Li Xu’s branch’s strength, and had a certain idea of how strong they were in his mind. 

“Big brother, this exam is a bit too hard, no? The range of Wen Mountain is so big; the mountain is probably ten thousand times larger than a normal mountain. Inside there are various caves, valleys, cliffs and waterfalls. These are all places where it’s possible to hide. If the Blood Drinking Demon conceals its aura, how will it be possible to find?” said Liao Yu.

“Actually, the range isn’t as big as you think.” faintly smiled Chu Mu.

Chu Mu who often trained in the wild had a very thorough understanding of soul pet habits. If he was participating in this exam, he would be able to lock onto the range the Blood Drinking Demon was operating in within a short period of time. 

Of course, when Mu Qingyi had departed, he had used a mental voice to teach her how to find the Blood Drinking Demon.

    ……

Wen Mountain was also covered by lingering clouds. The interior of the mountain was a complex maze. Hills circled the mountain and it would not be an easy task to find a Blood Drinking Demon in this vast mountain. 

After Mu Qingyi entered Wen Mountain, she began to move alone. She noticed that each person was moving in a different direction. 

After passing through a rock hill that was covered by clouds, Mu Qingyi used her soul remembrance to sense the area.

“Hu~~~~~~”

The White Tiger spat out a breath and turned to look in front. From time to time, it would use its nose to smell the ground. 

Mu Qingyi didn’t have a certain direction she was going in. She just let the White Tiger lead the way.

“Blood Drinking Demon…” Mu Qingyi retrieved a thick pet book from her spatial ring. As she sat on the White Tiger, she began to carefully read about the Blood Drinking Demon’s habits, characteristics and places it inhabited. 

“It enjoys the shade. Ok, I can exclude the sunny side of the mountain and the mountain peak.” muttered Mu Qingyi.

“It enjoys slaughter and drinking blood. Each day, it needs to try new blood. Even if it is wounded, it has to have blood to replenish itself. It’s probably hiding itself where there are more soul pets gathered. Thus, I can ignore more remote areas.” Mu Qingyi took out a map and pencilled out locations where soul pets were sparsely scattered. 

Before entering Wen Mountain, Official Tang had given each person a very detailed map of Wen Mountain. This gave Mu Qingyi an effective method of eliminating locations. 

“It doesn’t like water. Streams, rivers, lakes and waterfalls can be eliminated.” Mu Qingyi’s finger lightly traced through the map and she once more eliminated a few locations on the map. 

Mu Qingyi gave a rough search of the area closest to her, but it was still difficult to find anything.

“Every once in a while, the Blood Drinking Demon will shed its skin, releasing a medicinal smell.” Mu Qingyi muttered to herself again.

The White Tiger kept smelling as it progressed. The Blood Drinking Demon could hide its aura, but it could not escape the smell from shedding skin.

Soon, Mu Qingyi found an air-dried skin in a cave. The smell it emanated could be smelled several tens of kilometers away by the White Tiger. 

The skin of the Blood Drinking Demon appearing here meant that the Blood Drinking Demon had stayed here.

Of course, the Blood Drinking Demon was an extremely intelligent creature. After completing its shedding, it would change dwellings so as to prevent creatures with sensitive noses from using the skin to find it.

“Then this direction is correct.” a smile rose on Mu Qingyi’s face. It seemed that her luck was not bad. She had found a lead so quickly. 

“Chu Mu said that the most likely places the Blood Drinking Demon could be dwelling were: on the top of an ancient and tall tree, in a cave underneath a cliff or halfway down a cliff, and in the most narrow part of a sealed mountain valley… 

“Additionally, its dwellings will slightly change depending on the season. In the winter, it will choose the most narrow part of the valley, during the summer it will choose underneath a cliff or halfway down a cliff, and during the spring or autumn it will choose the top of a tree. Now that it is nearly autumn, the chances of it appearing in a cave underneath a cliff are slightly higher…” 

Thus, Mu Qingyi proceeded to place most of her attention on caves underneath cliffs. 

Soon, Mu Qingyi was pleasantly surprised to discover the second piece of skin the Blood Drinking Demon had shed. Even if it had been purposely buried in the kill by the Blood Drinking Demon, it had still been smelled by the White Tiger. 

“Speaking of this, how does Chu Mu know such detailed things?” when she found the second clue, Mu Qingyi couldn’t help but admire Chu Mu. The difficulty of pursuing a creature in the boundless large mountain was innately very high. Yet, a few tips from Chu Mu gave Mu Qingyi a very accurate direction. Most importantly, she had found her trail in such a short period of time. 

Mu Qingyi couldn’t help but silently think that it was indeed unfortunate that Chu Mu wouldn’t join Divine Sect. With his tracking abilities, any criminal would fall into his hands; it would be impossible to escape. 

With her second clue, a focus on the cliff caves and a knowledge of what the Blood Drinking Demon liked and hated, the range greatly shrank. As she penetrated deeper into the mountain, Mu Qingyi gradually sensed that this Blood Drinking Demon probably wasn’t too far from her.

    ……

“Hu”... suddenly, the White Tiger gave a deep sniff and abruptly rose its head. Its eyes were staring at the lofty cliff about ten kilometers away.l

“There?” asked Mu Qingyi.

The White Tiger nodded its head and instantly ran towards the cliff.

Ten kilometers wasn’t very far for a dominator rank creature and quickly, the White Tiger appeared underneath the cliff. By this point, Mu Qingyi could already smell the dense medicinal smell. 

“This fellow just finished shedding its skin!” said Mu Qingyi. 

The White Tiger ran up the 90 degree cliff. On the side it ran up, its back was to the sun, meaning there were many shadows. 

When Mu Qingyi looked up, she could see a piece of skin hanging from a tree on the cliff. The piece of skin was fluttering in the violent wind. 

Mu Qingyi caught up and discovered that there were still non-dry liquids stuck on the skin. This proved Mu Qingyi’s conjecture just now. 

The Blood Drinking Demon was nearby! 

Mu Qingyi immediately had the White Tiger jump higher up on the cliff, where the White Tiger instantly smelled a thick blood stench waft over from the forest.

Mu Qingyi released her soul remembrance and her eyes flickered with a blue halo. She stared off to where the blood aura was wafting over from. 

Indeed, a rapidly moving figure flashed by in the forest and almost instantly disappeared from Mu Qingyi’s field of view.

“Chase!” Mu Qingyi said to the White Tiger. 

“Hou hou…” the White Tiger roared and jumped off the several hundred meter cliff. After landing, it exercised its four robust limbs, leaving a huge layer of frost on the ground. 

“Yi…” the small heavenly bird on Mu Qingyi’s shoulders began to beat its wings. As it flew into the air, it was enveloped by a thick golden flame, rapidly transforming it into the imposing and domineering Crown Phoenix King. It flew straight across overtop the green trees, rapidly approaching the Blood Drinking Demon that was playing with its life, fleeing.  

The Blood Drinking Demon was a demon, so its speed was not ordinarily fast. Without the Crown Phoenix King’s perpetual aerial lock on, the White Tiger would easily be shaken off. 

The chase moved from the forest to the mountain ridge. The Blood Drinking Demon kept fleeing while Mu Qingyi relentlessly pursued. 

The gap gradually closed and the corners of Mu Qingyi’s mouth faintly curled. There was nowhere for the Blood Drinking Demon to flee! 

“Raging Flame Whistle!” Mu Qingyi looked at the Crown Phoenix King in the air, and gave it an order.

The Crown Phoenix King’s wings beat and a scorching golden flame descended from the air, forming a sea of raging flames in front of the Blood Drinking Demon and forcing it back. 

The Blood Drinking Demon didn’t like fire and it didn’t dare charge directly through the raging flame technique. Instead, it glanced behind it and savagely looked at Mu Qingyi who was relentlessly chasing it. 

Suddenly, it turned around and instantly erupted with terrifying speed. Its bloodthirsty claws swiped at Mu Qingyi and the White tiger! 

Mu Qingyi was already prepared and gave the White Tiger an order. 

A frosty storm coiled around the White Tiger and as it charged, the energy coalesced on its claws. It charged straight at the Blood Drinking Demon! 

The frosty ice storm and bloodthirsty aura mixed together before proliferating through the surrounding mountain range. 

At this moment, the Crown Phoenix King in the air completed its technique. It rapidly swooped down from the sky and when it neared the Blood Drinking Demon, it created a phoenix fire image with its wings. The fire image forcibly descended on the Blood Drinking Demon, suppressing its body. 

The Blood Drinking Demon reacted very quickly. It transformed into a series of remnant figures that rapidly dodged the phoenix figure’s suppression. 

However, the Crown Phoenix King’s technique was not that simple. After the Crown Phoenix King descended, the earth and mountain range mysteriously fissured apart. Pillar after pillar of fire surged out of the ground. The torrential heat beautifully filled the silent mountain range. 

The Blood Drinking Demon continuously changed its directions, dodging the magma pillars shooting out of the ground. As it searched for an opportunity to escape, it also searched for an opportunity to attack...

However, Mu Qingyi had already seen through its intentions. The combination of the White Tiger and Crown Phoenix King’s ice and fire perpetually wound create an ardent flame and icy frozen wall around it. This firmly trapped the Blood Drinking Demon in a limited area as the area itself was also continuously shrinking. This didn’t leave the Blood Drinking Demon any opportunity to flee. 

This Blood Drinking Demon’s strength was roughly a bit stronger than the low class dominator rank. However, the Crown Phoenix King was a huge favorite to win if it fought it one against one, and even more so if the White Tiger which neared the low class dominator rank was added.

Mu Qingyi gradually obtained control. However, she wasn’t hasty or impatient. For some reason, she seemed to feel that there were always a pair of eyes watching her from nearby. 

“Although I really don’t want to ruin your mood, please don’t injure my companion, beautiful young lady.” a sinister voice rang out from nearby. 

Indeed, Mu Qingyi’s vigilance was correct. 

Mu Qingyi was about to take down the Blood Drinking Demon, but she gave up on this. Instead, her eyes turned to the man a kilometer away. 

“This Blood Drinking Demon is your soul pet?” calmly said Mu Qingyi. She could feel an evil aura emanating from this man’s body. 

“No, but its style and conduct is to my liking. It is very compatible with our organization’s recruiting conditions…”