The Charm of Soul Pets

Chu Mu chased the Dead Dream for a while, but discovered that in the places it flew over, all of the plants would wither...

“Wu wu wu~~~~”

Mo Xie let out a cry, indicating that Chu Mu should look behind.

Chu Mu turned around, and astonishingly discovered that some gray misty hue was falling onto Xiang Rong City behind Dead Dream. It was as if a gray paint was being smeared onto a city of a painting.

“It’s…” Chu Mu didn’t understand. The Dead Dream didn’t have any interest in attacking humans, but why did it go to such great lengths to destroy Xiang Rong City’s plants? Did it have some sort of enmity against the city?

After chasing for a while, Chu Mu was gradually unable to keep up with its speed.

The Dead Dream looked as if it was passing through the air elegantly and slowly, but its speed was actually very fast. Mo Xie was unable to keep up.

Examining the surroundings, no matter if it were the red cedar on the streets, the white paulownia in the courtyards, the willows beside the gardens and next to the lakes, the vines growing on the wall, the roots in the ground, the fresh flowers decorating the city and the mysterious lichen, they were all withering. Even plant world soul pets not recalled in soul pet spaces were not able to escape unscathed… 

The entire city was withering into a grey color like death. It resembled a ruler stripping the city of its life force. 

    ……

In a courtyard deep into an alley in the central part of Xiang Rong City.

A blind old man was standing outside the courtyard with an expression of complication as he stared at the sky.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t see anything. His soul remembrance, under the powerful grey restriction, was unable to fully expand and he was unable to reach the area within a thousand meters of the mysterious and dangerous creature. 

“It ultimately did come. It ultimately did come!!” the blind old man’s expression upon seeing the Dead Dream was completely different than Duan Qiming and Li Guang’s desire. Instead, he seemed like he was sighing with sorrow. 

The only person in this city who knew of Dead Dream’s existence was this old blind man, because he had personally seen its absolute and lonely figure a long time ago. He still remembered the shock in his heart back then. So many years had passed, but the shock and desire had gradually transformed into a ripple in his old heart. This ripple was one of bitterness and helplessness. 

“Senior.” Chu Mu jumped off Mo Xie, and walked up to the blind old man who was immersed in some memory. 

Watching this dazed old man and seeing the desire and indiscernible sense of loss, Chu Mu suddenly really wanted to know about this old man’s past, since his status was even higher than Li Guang and Duan Qiming, those two old monsters. His understanding and knowledge of soul pets was not inferior to Old Li who had lived for several hundreds of years.Therefore, his past must be extremely marvelous. 

“It’s you. Come, describe to me its appearance.” the blind old man was not surprised by Chu Mu’s arrival, nor did he care about the withering plants and trees in the courtyard. 

Chu Mu stared at the sky in between two eaves, looking at the distant dream-like figure. He gave a description of it in a somewhat sentimental tone. 

“Hmm, it seems that my memory still hasn’t gotten indistinct yet.” the blind old man nodded his head in satisfaction. 

“Oh, you’ve seen it before?” quickly asked Chu Mu.

“I saw it when I was a young man. There was someone who I respected, and it was him who lured me into the mysterious and beautiful soul pet world. It was through him that I saw a Dead Dream that was still in its childhood. Back then, the Dead Dream was childish like an infant. Its feathers were so exquisite that others couldn’t help but go and touch it. I remember stroking its small head…” the blind old man gave a detailed account of the scene in his memory to Chu Mu.

This should have been his own memory, yet for some reason this old man was very willing to share it with the young man who gave him a feeling of familiarity. Perhaps it was because this young man reminded him of his obstinate and smart disciple back then. 

“Was that expert Cheng Mo? The Dead Dream was his soul pet?” asked Chu Mu.

The old man shook his head and said: “Cheng Mo never signed a soul pact with the Dead Dream. Every person has an ideal soul pet in their hearts and Cheng Mo already had what he believed was the perfect wing type soul pet. Therefore, he didn’t sign a soul pact with the young Dead Dream. Instead, he released it into this nation that used to belong the Dead Dream.” 

“Used to belong?” Chu Mu was confused.

“This place was originally not human territory. Instead, it belonged to the Dead Dreams. The first ancestor of all Fairy Butterflies was the Dead Dream. However, after humans began to meddle into this territory, the offspring of the Dead Dream gradually disappeared. In its place, the Fairy Butterfly species which was more suited to living with humans and surviving and breeding appeared. Then, this species slowly covered the entire Xiang Rong Boundary…. Of course, this was something that happened a few thousand years ago.” said the blind old man.

Chu Mu knew that the Dead Dream wasn’t part of the Fairy Butterfly species. It was probably a legendary species that probably only had the powerful and mysterious Dead Dream as part of the species. 

“Then it hasn’t signed a soul pact with anyone yet?” Chu Mu was a bit surprised.

After most soul pets signed a soul pact with a human ,they wouldn’t follow a second human because soul pets were loyal until death. 

If it hadn’t been another person’s soul pet, then the difficulty would greatly lower, and there would not be a mental barrier between the human and soul pet. 

Of course, the probability subduing it lowering was equivalent from becoming 1000% impossible from 10,000% impossible. Even if the impossibility lowered, it was still impossible. 

One could imagine how set in its ways a soul pet that had lived over a hundred years was. Moreover, from its perspective, Chu Mu was basically a small child… 

“You seem to be very interested in it.” said the blind old man. 

"Yes. I lack a wing type soul pet.” Chu Mu honestly nodded his head.

The blind old man was stunned for a moment, but soon after widened his chest, and let out a loud laugh! 

The blind old man’s laugh wasn’t mocking. Instead, it was a benevolence and respect towards youngsters. The reason why he laughed was because when he had told his own young disciple about the Dead Dream back then, he had also been just as bold and confident. He seemed to believe that capturing the Dead Dream was like capturing commanders and monarchs. As long as one put in enough effort and persevered, it was definitely possible… 

“It may be rather friendly to humans, but it is aloof and lonely like a king. A king cannot submit to others. If it has offspring, perhaps it wouldn’t mind letting its child following a human soul pet trainer to train. However, this doesn’t mean that it, who has already become a king, will be willing to follow a human into danger. That is unless you have reached the heights of Cheng Mo and can make this proud king submit.” laughed the blind old man. 

“Then again, you aren’t a normal person, right? At this age, you already have a high class emperor rank Seven Sins Fox with three main attributes. If I haven’t guessed incorrectly, your White Nightmare should be even stronger, right? Your strength is at least comparable to the Sixteen Absolutes.” said the blind old man. 

Chu Mu didn’t deny it. Although this old man was blind, the experiences accumulated over a hundred years allowed him to be a sage with eyes like torches. It was very difficult to hide anything from his eyes. 

“I really do want to obtain a Dead Dream. Does it have any offspring?” asked Chu Mu.

The species rank of a Dead Dream’s offspring would definitely be a peak emperor. Like the Empyrean Cyan Hidden Dragon, after it reached the tenth phase, it would be an unrivalled existence in the emperor rank. The innate species advantage of this creature would make the chances of it breaking into the dominator rank much higher than other lower ranked creatures. 

“Offspring? It probably doesn’t. Creatures of this rank are all unique and unmatched. Their method of inheritance is life inheritance…” said the blind old man.

“Life inheritance? What is life inheritance?” Chu Mu was stunned as this was the first time he had heard of this reproduction method. 

“Life inheritance normally appears on creature with extremely high innate species ranks where finding a mate is nearly impossible. Thus, life inheritance creatures, will only give birth to an egg just before they die. Only when the previous generation is completely dead will the egg hatch. Then, the following generation will continue the species. The Dead Dream’s life span should be very long, and it cannot give birth to a new Dead Dream. Therefore, unless you kill it…” the blind old man was still smiling. 

“Kill it?” Chu Mu rubbed his chin.

Even in the half devil state, Chu Mu didn’t actually have the confidence he could defeat this powerful Dead Dream.

Defeating and killing were two different ideas. Chu Mu had to be at least one or two grades higher than it in order to kill it. 

“Haha, brat, are you really working out a plan to kill it?” the blind old man let out a loud laugh again. Although he couldn’t see it, his soul remembrance was able to detect the minute changes on Chu Mu’s face. 

“Eh, no. I was only considering it. I think that the next generation will inherit its previous generation’s memories. The next generation would thus probably rather kill itself than become the soul pet of the enemy who killed his previous generation, right?” said Chu Mu.

“Your thoughts are rather sharp.” the blind old man let out a slight laugh before continuing: “You can’t kill it. It’s too too strong!” 

Chu Mu was stunned and hastily asked for an explanation. 

The old man faintly shook his head, not giving Chu Mu an explanation.