Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Gao Peng darted a few looks at the golden-robed apostle without saying anything. After a while, he ordered Xiao Cao to pull the man back from the brink of death.
Gradually, the golden-robed apostle’s face regained its color. The bleeding at the corner of his mouth stopped, and he was now breathing more steadily.
The man was overjoyed. He had never felt this great. It was as if he had been given a new lease on life.
“I would like to study your familiar,” said Gao Peng, squatting down beside him.
The golden-robed apostle paused for a moment, unsure if he had heard Gao Peng correctly. Then, he nodded furiously. “All right. It’s all yours.” He suddenly felt a pang of pain at the prospect of handing over his familiar to Gao Peng. However, as long as he was still alive, he could always turn the tables on those who had wronged him…
“I will also need you to break your Blood Contract with your familiar.”
The golden-robed apostle blinked at him. What?
“I’m not trying to force you. I don’t really like the idea of coercing people into doing something they don’t want to do. I just want to talk things out with you before you come to a decision yourself. If you break your Blood Contract with your familiar, not only will I complete your healing, I’ll also let you out of here,” said Gao Peng patiently.
The golden-robed apostle silently turned to the Gold-Threaded Rug Monster, which was lying limp and ragged on the ground. Its wounds had barely healed. Some of them were still bleeding profusely.
The golden-robed apostle felt a jolt of sympathy at the sight of the Gold-Threaded Rug Monster’s fallen form. He could still remember the day when the Cataclysm had happened and all hell had broken loose as strange monsters began attacking everyone on the streets. Five years ago, he had just been an ordinary museum curator.
Fortunately, the museum’s defenses were sturdy enough to hold off the rampaging monsters. With the heavy metal doors shut, the museum became his own personal fortress.
As he was looking for food in a room, he accidentally knocked down something from the wall. It was an ancient gold-threaded rug that had been hanging on the wall. He bent over to pick it up when suddenly, the rug had twitched in his hand…
He had never imagined that he would live to see inanimate objects coming to life. The rug slowly unfurled before him, its golden threads glistening beneath the room’s fluorescent light. He could still remember the way the reanimated rug had looked at him.
“Are you here to protect me?” he had asked. Excitement had been rising in him.
This 3,000-year-old rug had come alive just as monsters were rampaging through the streets. However, it didn’t seem capable of doing much. Soon, the museum’s food reserves were exhausted. The rug monster had also exhausted the supply of rugs and carpets in the museum. Most of the rugs and carpets there were priceless artifacts, but it seemed that only one had come to life. It was then that the golden-robed apostle found out about the rug monster’s diet, which mainly consisted of other textile products like rugs and carpets.
Later, he had decided to leave the museum in search of food in a nearby supermarket. It hadn’t taken long for a pack of Hairless Bloodhounds to pick up his scent. The golden-robed apostle remembered running for his life through the streets with the Hairless Bloodhounds on his tail.
By some miracle, his frantic running had caught the attention of a few people from the Golden Hands, who had proceeded to save him from his monstrous pursuers. Later on, he was inducted into the Golden Hands. Gradually, he climbed his way up the rungs of the organization until he finally made a name for himself as one of the four apostles of the Golden Hands. Though he had achieved much through his own effort, he knew that he wouldn’t have made it this far without the Gold-Threaded Rug Monster’s help.
He couldn’t stand the idea of cutting ties with a partner who had stayed with him through thick and thin for so long. The rug monster was one of the main reasons behind his success.
Without it, he definitely wouldn’t have become a Golden Hands apostle. Only a Lord-tier trainer would have had any chance of earning that title.
However, if he refused to do what Gao Peng had asked, he would most likely be killed. There was nothing to be gained from death. Between his own life and the relationship he had cultivated with the Gold-Threaded Rug Monster all these years, there was no doubt in his mind what the better option was.
“All right! As thanks for healing me, I’ll give you my familiar. I also promise that I won’t come after you in retaliation once I leave this place,” said the golden-robed apostle resolutely.
Upon hearing this, the Gold-Threaded Rug Monster shivered on the ground.
“I feel like the villain here…” muttered Gao Peng. He couldn’t but feel sorry for the Gold-Threaded Rug Monster.
Half an hour later, the golden-robed apostle stood back up and left the place. Behind him lay the Gold-Threaded Rug Monster, whose Blood Contract had been broken. After seeing Gao Peng walk over to it, the rug-like creature began shaking like a leaf.
[Monster Name]: Gold-Threaded Rug Monster
[Perfect-Grade Evolutionary Routes]: 1. Golden Light Rug Monster (Light-type evolution) 2. Bloody Golden Rug Monster (Bloody evolution)
The Gold-Threaded Rug Monster only had two possible evolutionary routes. Also, it had an extremely limited set of abilities. It just wasn’t Gao Peng’s type. He then decided to give it to Huang Ya.
Huang Ya had always been loyal to him. Half a year before, Gao Peng had appointed him Head of the Harvesting Department in the Southern Sky headquarters.
The Harvesting Department was in charge of harvesting all kinds of plants and materials in the wilderness. It was a dangerous job. Anyone working in this department was a trainer of formidable strength. Only those with at least one Commander-tier familiar were qualified to work there.
Huang Ya’s position was becoming more precarious with the influx of trainers in the department. He was still able to stifle the discontent people were feeling about his place in the department, but he could only hold off his detractors for so long with the reputation he had built up for himself.
Gao Peng figured that he could solve this problem once and for all by giving Huang Ya a Lord-tier familiar.
Gao Peng then looked at the red-robed apostle.
Without waiting to hear Gao Peng’s proposition, the red-robed apostle said, “I, too, would like to offer you my familiar in exchange for my life. I also happen to know the Golden Hands’ secret vaults. I’ll give you their combinations if you promise to let me leave this place alive.”
Unlike the golden-robed apostle, he was a veteran in the Golden Hands. Gao Peng had promised the golden-robed apostle that he wouldn’t kill him. He hadn’t said anything about keeping him safe from the government.
The red-robed apostle knew that the government already had the place surrounded outside. No harm would come to Gao Peng. However, a villain like himself would definitely be shot down the moment he stepped out of this place.
Having lived for so long, he had seen enough in his life to be able to take into account all eventualities of any situation.
Two minutes later…
The red-robed apostle’s face had turned red like a tomato, as if he was trying to lay an egg. It wouldn’t be far-fetched at this point to describe a Blood Contract as a patch of dead skin stubbornly clinging to the Mental Sea that was shared by both trainer and familiar.
“Are you done?” asked Gao Peng, raising an eyebrow.
“Almost. Just give me a bit more time…”
Ten minutes later, the red-robed apostle gave up. “My familiar doesn’t want to break its Blood Contract with me.”
The Saprophytic Earth Dragon who was still trapped inside the ice prison furiously looked at its trainer. How dare you try to give me up!
“Let’s just break our Blood Contract. That way, you’ll be able to find a new trainer who will take even better care of you…”
The Saprophytic Earth Dragon shook its head furiously. Sometimes, familiars were a more stubborn lot than humans. They took their connections with their trainers seriously, sometimes even more so than their Blood Contracts.
“Ah, forget it… Kill me if you must,” said the red-robed apostle with a bitter laugh. He suddenly remembered all that he had been through alongside the Saprophytic Earth Dragon.
He had signed a Blood Contract with it at the age of 58, a time when he no longer had the vigor of youth in him.
Old people generally had a harder time showing affection for their familiars. However, the Saprophytic Earth Dragon had been a ray of light in his life.
He still remembered what a tiny thing the Saprophytic Earth Dragon had been when he signed a blood contract with it. Since then, it had grown into a 30-foot-long monstrosity.
Well, I’ve lived a long enough life.
Even though he had braced himself for Gao Peng’s killing blow, the red-robed apostle tried one last time to convince his young captor to spare his life. “I’ve already tried to break my Blood Contract with my familiar. I have no wish to die here. I want to live on. I can tell you where the Golden Hands’ secret vaults are, as well as the locations of our bases outside the region. I can also help you round up any surviving members of the Golden Hands. I am at your mercy. Use me as you please.” The red-robed apostle let his head hang in despair.
Then, there was silence.
