Chapter 141: Soul Bond

And so Moon remembered he’d forgotten to cast a cleaning spell on himself.

He soon ran away with the others to the Lost Realm and just dove into the lake to get a quick bath.

Moon climbed out of the lake, water streaming down his hair and bare back. He muttered a quick cleaning spell under his breath.

The marks on his neck faded, the oil and mess disappeared, and his clothes settled back on his body without a single wrinkle.

He still felt light.

The apprentice breakthrough sat in his five cores like warm sunlight. Spiritual power moved more smoothly than before.

Filled to the brim.

He could finally try Spiritual-Grade pills without any restriction due to limited spiritual qi.

It was deep night, and the moon was slowly walking to its full phase, reminding Moon that he had to hurry.

There was not much time left. Only seven days until the full moon.

But first he needed to fix some of his urgent work.

Soon he gathered his people on the mountain terrace in front of their cave and sat around a stone table.

"Ahem! We need to divide the work. We have four days here, then we need to move west to register for the admission trials."

Axe, Ugo, and Nox nodded, looking very serious outside.

Moon furrowed his brows in annoyance. "I am being serious."

"We are listening, dear," Axe said. His voice was deep and steady.

"Yes, we are." Nox agreed.

Moon poured himself some tea and thought for a moment. He didn’t really know how to manage so much. But he had to make a plan now.

"Well... what do you think?" he at last asked, not sure how to proceed.

"Let’s start with Chika," Axe pointed out.

"Yes, who wants to go find him?" Moon looked eagerly at everyone.

"Me. I will go," Axe nodded.

"Oh, okay then. You... Nox... finish your formation." He said, still thinking of how to divide the work.

Ugo suddenly sighed and sat up straight. "You need to refine pills, Moon?" Ugo asked.

"Yes. Those men need many poison-removing pills. We don’t have that many. Also, I need to figure out the transformation and the face-alteration pill." Moon felt troubled.

It was almost impossible to make a real transformation pill at this time. It was a pill he didn’t even know how to make, or the recipe.

So all he could do was figure out something closer.

If he couldn’t do it by this full moon to try shifting Leo and Rio, they would eventually lose their chance to be admitted into the academy, and they would have to wait another year.

Another year of running away from Vaelis would be a disaster.

He could take fasting pills and enter deep meditation. But in that time, what would happen to these alphas was another story.

Seeing Moon’s troubled face, Nox’s heart felt tight. He held Moon’s hand that was not holding the cup and pressed it softly.

"Mooney, go and do your work. We will manage outside."

"Can you?" Moon asked. His face was full of hesitation.

"Just go do your things. Don’t worry about the outside." Ugo said.

"What about those men inside the ice?"

Ugo looked at Nox and Axe. They exchanged a glance and nodded.

"Lupine said we each can connect to the place we claimed.

Nox can go in and out through Xirang Hall, I can enter Starlily, and Axe can easily access Lupine Hall even without your help if you give us a seal."

He paused.

Then said slowly in a deep voice, "Moon, I think we should make a bond. You mentioned before that even if you are human and not a wolf, you can still make a bond with us, back when we first met. Do you remember?"

A surprise flashed in Moon’s eyes. So much had happened that he almost forgot about the soul beast contract.

"You want to do that?" Moon asked.

Now he wasn’t sure if he really should use a beast contract with them. After all, they were not his soul beasts but humans. Even though they had wolves in them.

"We can try. Our pack seal will not be removed so easily. But a soul contract can still keep us together." Nox said eagerly.

’Together...’

The word hit a soft spot.

Moon suddenly felt strange.

He would be bound with them together forever if he did that.

Before, all he thought about was awakening his five barren cores and being able to cultivate. But now this "together" sounded very complicated and hard to accept.

He was silent for a long time.

The soft moonlight fell on his face, making him look like a distant star.

But he was not that.

He was still a mortal struggling to pluck the star.

[Why are you hesitating?] A soft voice rang in his mind, interrupting his restless thoughts.

’Forever is very long. What if one day I really achieve immortality? Will they follow me?’ Moon asked in confusion.

[Mooney, my child! You didn’t think that before in the pool. Of course they will follow you.]

’I was not in any mind to think about all this at that time.’ Moon grumbled.

’What’s more, they are not really my beasts or pets. It just feels very strange now,’ he added.

"Mooney, just bond with us, okay? You even made a pact with Oshan and Levi." Nox said as he stared fixedly at Moon’s eyes.

Moon let out a sigh.

"It’s not what you think... It’s complicated. Oshan’s and Levi’s contracts were simple. But the bond I talked about was a different one."

"How different?" Axe asked.

"It’s special? That’s good then." Nox said at the same time.

Ugo glared at Nox, then also asked Moon, "What’s the difference? It’s not any mate bond, right?"

Moon pushed Nox’s hand away and rubbed his knuckles. He looked away from the three pairs of eyes.

"It’s not a bond between humans." He paused and thought for another few moments about how to break it to these men.

He started slowly. "You already know I don’t belong here, don’t you?"

He asked but didn’t wait for an answer.

It was already known to all that he was a mage.

So he continued, "In my continent, mages can contract beasts—spiritual beasts."

He paused and looked at the brothers. Seeing them furrowing their brows, he already knew they had guessed his intention.

"The soul bond I mentioned is exactly that one." Moon finished.

He nervously shifted on his seat. He still remembered, time and time again, that there would be wars between divine beasts and mages for these kinds of things.

Divine beasts always found those contracted beasts a disgrace, as human mages continuously spoiled their beast clans.

When even a spiritual beast doesn’t want to be a soul-contracted beast with a human, how could this proud werewolf be a contracted beast?

Moon was about to say, "Forget it," but before his lips moved, Nox said hurriedly, "That’s fine. Aren’t we wolves? Maybe it will work."

Moon froze for an instant.

"You..."

Nox looked at him with that bright face. "Let’s do it, Mooney."

Ugo didn’t speak right away.

He was deep in thought. Axe leaned back against the stone table, crossing his arms over his chest. He raised his hand.

"Hold on." He said in a grave voice.