Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Xia Fei had not seen how Furball grew, but it had grown from something as large as an egg to something the size of a basketball. Such a growth rate surprised Xia Fei so much that he was at a loss for words.
Furball was not the least bit angry. In fact, it was fighting back its tears as it went running to hug Xia Fei’s left calf, looking all pitiful as it continuously rubbed its head against Xia Fei.
Xia Fei picked up Furball, feeling incredulous, and let it lick his face with its tongue however it liked.
After some time, Xia Fei finally asked, “Is this really Furball? Why did it suddenly grow so big?”
Phantom shrugged. “What’s so surprising about that? While you were asleep, Furball was like a balloon, swelling into that size in less than three minutes.”
Xia Fei grabbed hold of Furball’s small face and tugged at it randomly. Furball painfully grinned through it, not at all daring to resist.
Xia Fei had a thought and he shared it with Phantom. “In the past, I didn’t use my Beast Spirit Eyes to examine Furball because it’ s just too small, but now that it’s grown more than ten times its size before, I ought to give that a try now, right?”
Phantom nodded. Xia Fei’s Beast Spirit Eyes could observe the color of an exotic beast’s Beast Spirit Fire. Different beasts would have different colored fires. Normally, exotic beasts that were warmer and more docile would have a fairly calm flame color—most had green, blue, or other cool colors. More aggressive exotic beasts would have gold, red, or other more radical colors.
Meanwhile, the flame’s brightness and size could also determine the exotic beast’s grade. Phantom and Xia Fei were both extremely curious about Furball’s nature, and it had only been because of how weak and small Furball was before that they avoided using the Beast Spirit Eyes to examine it.
Now that Furball was all grown up, it should be time for them to gain a better understanding of it.
Xia Fei always had this feeling that Furball was actually a very crafty exotic beast, and only because it was still feeble and small that it chose to bow down to him. Once it grew up and had greater strength, there was no telling if it would still be as obedient toward Xia Fei as right now.
Reality had already proven how strange and extraordinary Furball was as an exotic beast. Xia Fei would rather have a thousand enemies than for this mysterious exotic beast that he had raised with his two hands to turn out to be a foe. After all, he had spent plenty of blood and sweat on Furball, treating it as one of his own.
With this thought, Xia Fei could no longer hold back his impulse to find out what Furball was.
Putting Furball down on the floor, he began exercising his Beast Spirit Codex as he slowly shifted his consciousness toward Furball.
At first, Furball was shaking its head as usual, looking gleeful and cheeky, and the smile it showed was fawning and ingratiating.
However, the moment Xia Fei’s consciousness began to near it, Furball’s expression changed. Even though it looked as it usually did, Xia Fei could keenly sense that something was starting to get off through its eyes.
The moment Xia Fei’s consciousness entered Furball’s body, he met up with a big problem.
It was as if Furball’s body was hiding a strong whirlpool within, sucking Xia Fei’s mental energy deeper in itself.
Xia Fei’s heart seized. He never would have thought that Furballs’ mental defenses would be this tough, and its mental strength was no weaker than his own.
This was simply too unimaginable.
It had barely been a handful of months since Furball first hatched to now, yet it had a mental strength that was no weaker than Xia Fei’s own. Could it actually be a legendary god beast? There was no way an ordinary exotic beast could put up such a powerful resistance.
Everyone knew that using a mental ability to probe a living organism even stronger than oneself was a very dangerous move, and too powerful a resistance could easily result in a mental backlash, directly swallowing the invader’s mental domain. A light retaliation would result in injury, and a heavy retaliation might result in death or catatonia.
At that moment, Xia Fei was sweating profusely.
*Swoosh—*
Without leaving a moment to hesitate, Xia Fei immediately pulled out his consciousness from Furball’s body.
The moment Xia Fei’s mental energies left Furball’s body, the creature quickly returned to its previous state, running over to Xia Fei’s side as it hugged his thigh. It was as if that had just been its innate defenses Xia Fei had come up against and not it intentionally wanting to harm Xia Fei.
“What happened?” Phantom turned to regard Xia Fei, puzzled.
“Furball has a very strong mental strength, so I’m unable to probe it,” Xia Fei said gravely.
“What?” Phantom was bewildered. “Furball is just a newborn exotic beast; to think it possesses a mental strength capable of resisting yours! You’ve cultivated the Beast Spirit Codex up to the fourth stage, so it should be enough to deal with a substantial majority of exotic beasts.”
Xia Fei shrugged. “Looks like Furball isn’t considered among the majority.”
The two of them were silent for a good while. It was clear that, while Furball was treating Xia Fei well for now, they had no way of knowing what their future relationship might be. Furball had plenty of potential, but the more powerful an exotic beast was, the harder it would be to restrain it, and that was a serious concern for Xia Fei.
“Given how things have turned out, there’s only one solution left,” Xia Fei muttered to himself.
“What could that be?”
“Advance my cultivation of the Beast Spirit Codex past the fifth stage, making a breakthrough to the sixth stage and then establishing a life-and-death contract with Furball.”
Once the Beast Spirit Codex was cultivated to the sixth stage, the user would be able to set blood contracts with exotic beasts. Since Xia Fei was only at the fourth stage, he was still quite a good way off from being able to create such contracts.
Furball was still young, yet Xia Fei had been unable to subdue it with just his stage four Beast Spirit Codex cultivation. However, it would be different if he got it to the sixth stage. Currently, the only plan was to force Furball into a contract with him while it was still young. Otherwise, even Xia Fei at the stage six stage of the Beast Spirit Codex might be unable to subjugate it completely if it was given a few more years to grow because of how terrifying Furball’s potential was.
“Are you insane!” Phantom exclaimed in his astonishment. “Breaking two whole stages in one go—considering how many years you spent before you got your Beast Spirit Codex to stage four, just how do you plan on crossing two major thresholds in one go?”
Xia Fei very calmly answered, “There’s nothing impossible in this universe. Back in the day when I was a courier, I never even imagined that I would have my achievements of today. One will never know the outcome if they don’t give it a shot; I should still have a chance while I have this huge bank of mental energy reserve in my mental domain.”
With that, Xia Fei glanced at Furball with ill intentions. Furball seemed to have sensed that Xia Fei had thought of an idea on how to deal with it, so it began fighting a cold war by making itself look pitiful in front of Xia Fei.
The more Furball acted this way, the more determined Xia Fei was in his decision to subjugate Furball. If it were to become Xia Fei’s exclusive exotic beast, then no matter how crafty or sinister Furball was, it would still have to listen to Xia Fei’s orders. Being kind to an enemy was essentially being cruel to oneself. Xia Fei did not care what methods Furball used against its enemy, provided that its target was not himself.
If he did not do this, Xia Fei was completely uncertain on how long he would have a hold over Furball. After all, this was a super-top-grade exotic beast, so the moment it no longer needed Xia Fei’s protection, would it end up turning heel and attempting to deal with him?
“Then, it is decided. I’ll be secluding myself here for this,” Xia Fei said decisively.
Shutting the doors to the command deck, Xia Fei was not at all concerned with the eight Tulon tribal leaders who were waiting outside for him. His massacre of their people had already culled them all, so none of them would have the guts to come snooping around Xia Fei even if someone were to goad them.
The region of space that this planet was located was particularly desolate and perfect for seclusion. It was no easy task to make two stages of breakthroughs in the Beast Spirit Codex, so Xia Fei had no idea how long this would take, which made this sheltered corner perfect for what he was planning to do.
Xia Fei exhaled as he sat down cross-legged. Furball rolled in circles on the ground a few times before settling itself right next to him. It looked like it wanted Xia Fei to give it a hug and probably to give it some Purple Hearts of Spirit as food.
Xia Fei rubbed its head as he softly said, “Go hungry for a bit first. Once you become my exclusive beast, I’ll let you eat all the Hearts of Spirit you want, but not now.”
It was ironic; Xia Fei had always been reprimanding Furball for not growing up, but right now, he was deathly afraid of Furball suddenly growing up.
…
1
Time passed by very slowly. The difficulty of leveling the Beast Spirit Codex increased several fold each stage, which was why he needed to spend even more time as he moved up the stages.
Xia Fei’s copy of the Beast Spirit Codex only had the first six stages, and the final three stages of the technique had been lost for some reason. From what was written in the tome, cultivating to the ninth stage would allow its user to command beasts all across the universe, establishing a powerful exotic beast army where any and all exotic beasts would bow in service to the user.
…
1
It would indeed be a pity that there was no way for Xia Fei to attain such a powerful ability, but right now, the most important goal for him was to make Furball sign a contract with him, since Xia Fei was more and more certain that Furball would at least be a Beast-King-grade existence when it grew up.
There was that Black Star Phantom Bat in the Wild Star Region, also at the Beast King grade, which could eliminate an entire fleet by itself, and Furball might just be around the same strength as that Black Star Phantom Bat when it matured. Xia Fei was already very satisfied if he had such a powerful helper beside him, believing that Furball would become like his left arm, aiding Xia Fei as he braved the dangers of the universe.
With that thought in mind, Xia Fei could not help but feel his blood boil for having an exclusive Beast-King-grade exotic beast. Not many would be able to say the same in this universe.
After breaking through the fifth stage of the Beast Spirit Codex, Xia Fei immediately proceeded to assault the sixth stage without a break, pressing onward without missing a beat.
The energy reserves in his mental domain helped Xia Fei immensely. In fact, he did not even need to take a rest, solely relying on what he had stored in to maintain his mental energy.
It was as if any thorns or obstacles on this road to the sixth stage could get in the way of Xia Fei’s progress. Beside him, Phantom was also very excited. Seeing him progress in this manner was akin to watching a racing car barrel past any obstacles as if it were a tank, trampling on anything that dared block its way.
However, Xia Fei had no choice but to slow down when he reached the threshold of the sixth stage.
It was as if he had suddenly encountered a mountain reaching far beyond the clouds that its peak was invisible and densely covered in thorns.
Xia Fei was stumped. Such a high mountain should not exist. Getting past it was basically a completely impossible task.
Xia Fei spent five whole days and nights trying to make any advancement before this mountain, yet he could not even catch a glimpse of the shadow of the peak. He even suspected that the mountain he was attempting to climb might not have an end.
1
The third stage of the Beast Spirit Codex was like a threshold that Xia Fei had spent plenty of time on before finally getting past. The fourth and fifth stages, which came after, were more simple, and now Xia Fei had met yet another threshold just at the cusp of reaching the sixth stage, and the difficulty was several times that of the third stage.
Xia Fei was not one to give up, and only by surmounting this peak could he finally grasp the ability to sign contracts with exotic beasts; only then could he get the powerful Furball to become his exclusive beast, so no matter how powerful Furball became in the future, it would still have to listen to his orders. That was why, no matter how difficult getting past this stage was, Xia Fei would most definitely not admit defeat.
Another five days passed, and Xia Fei slowly got more and more tired. The mental energy reserves that he had obtained from the insectoid cerebrum was steadily being exhausted, and he was feeling more and more tired, as well as colder and colder, while still stuck here by the mountainside.
