Chapter 151: Ugo’s POV

She paused.

Looking at Moon’s indifferent face, she continued.

[Frostbane is the only immortal alive here. He can go out, but he doesn’t want to. His power is also suppressed to saint level here. No one higher than saint can stay in this lost realm. So he willingly cut off his cultivation and stayed behind.]

She came out of the air and sat on the newly made platform.

[The ambient qi inside Monalis is not meant for mages or cultivators like you and Lupine. But RuYi can still go out with Ugo. Ugo’s body is different from other werewolves. He can carry other plant spirits with him.]

She paused, then added slowly,

[He can even devour them for his own use.]

Moon’s heart trembled.

Devour?

Didn’t that make him kind of a monster?

He asked in confusion, "Shouldn’t the spirits be afraid of him then? Why would RuYi cling to him?"

[He can devour them, and he can also carry them. To devour a spirit like RuYi, he would need thousands of years of cultivation first.]

"Hmm, that makes sense. So why did he go out now?"

[Isn’t it simple? They were trapped inside for so long. As long as they have a chance to go out and see the world, they would take it.]

Moon became dumbfounded.

So this was the reason RuYi clung to that wood? It was actually a very simple and justified reason.

His heart softened.

It seems like RuYi didn’t really hate him. He was just enjoying freedom and, maybe as the others said, a bit shy to face him.

Moon didn’t hang onto those thoughts.

He took out his soul manual and began guiding his soul to settle fully.

He took out a lot of spirit stones, scattered them around, and sat down to meditate.

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Ugo’s POV

On the other side of the Lost Realm, Ugo was not having a good time.

A thick vine shot out from his palm and thrashed against a flamingo.

The bird was black and gray, wings sharp as razors, beak silver and curved.

It screeched and twisted, trying to cut the vine with its feathers, but Ugo only tightened his grip and slammed it into the mud.

They were deep in the lost realm, where the lake met shallow lagoons. The water was dark and salty, slowly falling downward.

The flamingos here usually hunted fish that looked more like poisonous snakes than anything edible.

Ugo’s target was one of these flamingos.

He needed to catch at least three and dig out their cores, along with the other usable parts.

On Moon’s list of materials for the transformation pill, one item was the golden-beaked razor flamingo. These used to be exactly that—before the black water mutated them.

RuYi had said the mutated cores would work even better for werewolves.

The problem was the birds were too clever.

Every time Ugo got close, they either flew off or attacked together.

RuYi could only advise on the side. His spirit form was still too weak to fight properly.

Ugo wiped the black mud from his arm and exhaled.

He and RuYi had been at this for a while.

Before coming to the lake, he had already dealt with something else that had been sitting in the back of his mind.

The five trainee shadow guards.

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This morning, right after Nox left for the city, Ugo went inside the Lupine Palace.

The five shadow guards were still locked inside the well-like place behind the Lupine Palace.

Lupine had kept them there and fed them just enough to keep them alive.

They were still wearing the hard black metallic shackles, and their bodies lay scattered across the dry ground.

Ugo looked at them for a while before taking out the leftover rejuvenation pills.

"Well, let’s see if you can wake up now."

He crouched down and fed them one by one.

It didn’t take long before the first man stirred. His eyelids trembled, and he slowly opened his eyes. The moment he realized where he was, he tried to sit up.

Clang!

The shackles rattled.

He looked down at his wrists, then at the deep well surrounding him. His expression changed immediately.

"Where is this?"

His voice alerted the others. One after another, they woke up, only to find themselves in the same situation.

They struggled to get up and tried to pull at their shackles. Some searched for an exit, while others immediately looked for their weapons.

Of course, they found nothing.

Ugo watched them quietly until one of them charged toward him.

He stepped aside, threw a punch into the man’s stomach, and kicked him back to the ground.

The others froze in place.

Ugo smiled gently.

"Dear gentlemen, you don’t think you can go back, do you? Be wise and let’s make a deal."

He paused, crossed his arms over his chest as he twiddled his chin.

"Work for us, and we will keep you alive."

His tone was so gentle that the five guards felt goosebumps.

They exchanged glances.

These men had been trained as shadow guards. They had long since prepared themselves for death, and none of them was willing to betray their master just to survive.

One of them spat at Ugo.

"Dream on!"

"..."

Ugo looked at the spit on his clothes and stood speechless.

What a rude fellow!

He sighed and shook his head. He had tried to be polite, hadn’t he?

Since they refused to cooperate, he had no other choice.

Ugo took out a small bundle of herbs.

This was a special tonic he had prepared from a herb he collected deep in the Alpine forest.

It could damage a person’s mind and turn them into an idiot if used improperly.

He never had a chance to try it on humans before. The ones he usually experimented on were wild animals.

Today, he finally got his chance.

From the side, Lupine clicked his tongue and sighed.

"Moon really has no idea what kind of things you are up to when he’s not around, does he?"

Ugo shrugged. "He wouldn’t assume we’re good men, either."

Then he pinched the man’s jaw open and shoved the raw herb into his mouth.

In an instant, the man’s eyes rolled upward, and his body began to thrash violently.

The other four guards stared in horror.

"What did you feed him?!"

"Something good," Ugo replied.

Lupine shook his head in exasperation, though his eyes were shining with curiosity.

This fellow could smile so gently while doing the most questionable things.

Soon, the remaining guards received the same treatment. Ugo waited until the tonic had taken effect before standing up.

"They’ll need some time to recover. Let’s leave them here for now."

There was still plenty to do before he could return to Moon.

The workers needed somewhere to live, and the surrounding land had to be prepared for planting.

He left the Lupine palace and came out into the lost realm.

He took out the list Moon had given him and studied it while walking.

Some of the herbs shouldn’t be too difficult to find, but others were another matter. The materials for the transformation pill were particularly troublesome.

"Master, you know where we can find these, don’t you?" Ugo asked softly. "Let’s find some herbs for my wife."