Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Er Gouzi, go wash this Blood Dragon Python meat and clean out all the parasites inside. Da Pang, is your white ostrich egg ready to be smoked? Right, Lao Cai, stir-fry that with oil first…” The head chef busily shifted back and forth in the back kitchen.
“Ah,” Er Gouzi exclaimed. A tapeworm that was as thick as a thumb suddenly sprung out of the Blood Dragon Python that was soaked in saltwater. It viciously tried to bite Er Guozi’s gloved right hand.
“Aye.” A big bird sprang over, fluttering its wings, while the little peacock accurately caught the tapeworm and swallowed it. After eating it, the little peacock returned to its perch that had been built on top of the kitchen and gently licked its feathers.
The Nethermost Peacock squatted in a corner and watched this scene helplessly. Although it was disgruntled, this was still somewhat better than losing one’s life. It thought that the man and his familiars would humiliate it after it surrendered, so it had been psychologically prepared for that, but it hadn’t expected them to just send it to the kitchen, never to visit again.
This was the seventh day that the Nethermost Peacock had been in the restaurant. Throughout these seven days, it and another small peacock had remained in the back kitchen. That little bird had also signed a Blood Contract with the chef… The head chef was an old man from the Southern Sky Group. He had served as a chef in the group cafeteria for more than 20 years, so his loyalty could be assured.
There were various parasites embedded in the meat of the Emperor and Overlord-tier monsters. Of course, they weren’t as powerful as the ones in Lord or King-tier monsters, or they would have been killed by them, just as one could allow some flea and parasites on one’s body, but would draw the line at a rat.
The secretary knocked on the door, walked in, and said to the head chef, “Head chef, the supervisor asked me to bring this out.”
“Oh, okay. You don’t have to tell me about such small matters.” The head chef smiled.
The Nethermost Peacock stood up and walked out, expressionless. Sure enough… it’s time for me to face my execution… At least my children found a home. Although, it was a pity that none of them had become the human being’s familiar. This thought suddenly flashed through the Nethermost Peacock’s mind.
In the room, it saw Gao Peng. The man was sitting leisurely with his legs crossed on a big sofa, flipping through a magazine. The Nethermost Peacock stared at Gao Peng and didn’t speak. After a while, Gao Peng was finally done reading the article. He looked up and said to the Nethermost Peacock, “You may leave. There’ll be people coming to the volcano to look for you and discuss the details of our cooperation.”
The Nethermost Peacock was stunned. It thought it had misheard. “You… you would let me go?”
Gao Peng frowned, then gave it a half-smile. “Why? It can’t be that you can’t bear to leave and want to stay. You have such a big appetite that I can’t afford to keep you.”
The Nethermost Peacock fell silent for a moment, then nodded and started to take flight. At the last second, it turned. “Be good to the three of them. Although they’re a bit stupid and not very sensible, they’re still rather cute. I believe… you’ll take a liking to them.” After that, it took off.
Two of the three little peacocks were given to Head Chef Lao Chen and Xu Qingzhi, respectively, while the third little peacock was brought back to the Southern Sky Group by Gao Peng and left to his grandfather to assign.
Putting down the magazine, Gao Peng became emotional. “This year has brought about great changes. There are now celebrity monster trainers. Familiars that are good looking have an advantage.”
To remain relevant, Gao Peng had asked his staff to bring him large numbers of books and magazines. One needed to spend much time reading to avoid becoming redundant in society.
After leaving all the books in Silly’s space, Gao Peng went out and watched the crowd in the labyrinth. Gao Peng then calmly said, “Be prepared. I hope you won’t be too shocked in the moments to come.”
Xu Qingzhi saw the space beside Young Master contort, and the next moment, a familiar was summoned; it was a very big fish. Although it wasn’t that big, she sensed that it was dangerous.
The fish smiled at her! Its mouth was full of golden teeth.
Xu Qingzhi smiled awkwardly but politely. Is this strange fish Young Master’s newly acquired familiar? But I’ve never seen it before?
“Look at this, little sister.” After saying this, the strange fish spat out a magic golden cube.
Uh… It’s not a rubik’s cube. Is it a model of the labyrinth? Just when Xu Qingzhi was completely confused by the floating labyrinth model in front of the monster’s mouth, a small golden spot shone out of the model. The small spot grew rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, it transformed into a foot-long gold brick.
The brick emitted golden light and sunk into the earth below. Boom!
The next moment, the entire Desolate Labyrinth trembled. The hawkers and pedestrians stopped walking. Some squatted on the ground, and others ran into the shops by the roadside. The shops were also covered in the golden light.
Familiars gave alarmed cries, bewildered.
“Roar!”
“Anggg.”
“Howl—”
All the monsters near the Desolate Labyrinth were roaring in terror; fear had risen from the deep within their souls.
Even the Nethermost Peacock, which had just flown off, had its feathers ruffled. It made a strange cry as it looked back at the Desolate Labyrin and saw golden pillars soaring into the sky.
In a swamp three thousand miles away from the Desolate Labyrinth, a number of gurgling bubbles emerged from the deep depths of the calm marsh. After a long time, a huge scaled head covered with moss rose out of the swamp.
“This again… This was done thousands of years ago,” it muttered. “Did that fellow come back to life?” As though it had been reminded of the past, the giant creature swallowed a few mouthfuls of mud and slowly sank back down…
The odd events in the Desolate Labyrin lasted for ten minutes before they finally ended. When the oddity ended, the labyrinth was still the same. It didn’t suddenly have three heads or a dozen pairs of hands.
There were merely small signs of damage to the formerly clean and neat walls.
“Young Master, is it done?”
“Try it and you’ll know,” Gao Peng said.
Standing by Xu Qingzhi’s feet, the chubby little peacock fluttered its wings and headed to the wall, then forcefully pecked it. Although it was only at the Commander tier, its beak was harder than steel, so it could easily peck a large pothole in the corner of the wall. But this time, when it tried pecking the corner of the wall, it seemed to hit an invisible wall.
Tiny golden ripples that were visible to the naked eye spread outward from where the peacock pecked.
“Oh—” The little bird let out a horrified shout and flew backwards. It rolled seven or eight times on the ground, stopping only when it bumped into Xu Qingzhi’s heel. Lying on the ground, the little peacock let out a whimper, its wings clasping Xu Qing’s calf and not letting go.
“Yo…”
“Hahaha.” Goldie laughed happily. Recently, Flamy had been upset. Goldie needed to think of a way to cheer Flamy up.
“Flamy, look at how cute this little black bird is,” said Goldie with a shameless expression.
It had overheard on a television series that when one was chasing girls, one had to be thick-skinned! Shameless! Relentless!
Although Flamy was a female bird, it was probably similar.
Flamy’s face softened. It knew that it was slightly plump, but was that its fault? It also wanted to lose weight, but even flying hundreds of miles every day, such frequent exercise, didn’t allow it to become slim.
After every high-intensity workout, it would become very hungry. When it was hungry, it would want to eat. It was only when it ate that it would have enough energy to exercise.
Humph! Its stomach was to blame for always being so easily hungry. Flamy also knew that this fool, Goldie, had deliberately not said that it was fat, otherwise it wouldn’t merely have been annoyed.
“Oh, I think this little black bird is cute, but not as cute as you,” Goldie said earnestly.
Flamy used its wings to rub the flesh on its stomach, relieved. “Really?”
“Of course it’s true! When have I ever lied?” Goldie said honestly.
Well, this was true. One of the reasons Flamy got along with Goldie was because the yellow duck was quite an honest duck.
“Oh, it’s all right. When I was younger, I was probably slightly cuter than this. But now I’m older and a lot fatter.” Flamy sighed demurely.
Goldie said in amazement, “You were much fatter than this when you were younger!”
Flamy was silent for a moment. “I was fed by Uncle Liu when I was a child…”
The honest Goldie grew very anxious. “Da Zi was the one that Uncle Liu fed. Da Zi was fed until it was the size of a pig back then. But you, you were born fat.”
“Huh?” Flamy narrowed its eyes slightly.
Da Zi burped and ran out of the kitchen in a daze. It thought it had heard someone talking about it. Forget it. Goldie is an honest duck. I won’t squabble with it.
Flamy hopped off with a dark expression.
Did I say something wrong? Goldie was confused.
Wasn’t it mentioned that when chasing a girl, one needed not only thick skin but also perseverance?
Hmm… Goldie thought about it. Was it because I wasn’t relentless?
“So you were really fatter than this when you were a child,” Goldie tried to catch up.
“I see!”
“But I like you fat.” Goldie tried to control its smile.
Flamy, who was stunned, started to blush.
