All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 72: Meow Meow Meow

Zhanyue and Baizhi headed straight into the depths. During the day, the dangers in the secret realm were relatively fewer, and this time they had prepared a large number of pills to conceal human scent, ensuring safety even at night.

The two stopped in front of a ‘willow tree’. This tree had thousands of branches and leaves hanging down like a willow, swaying in the wind. On the main trunk was a hole, inside which hung a fruit that looked like a heart, pulsating periodically.

“Demon Willow Heart, worth 1,000 points!” Baizhi excitedly ran over. Zhanyue wore a mischievous smile but didn’t stop her.

The thousand willow branches suddenly came alive, tightly binding the approaching Baizhi, accentuating her graceful figure. Then, the willow leaves on the tree transformed into flying blades, about to cut Baizhi into pieces.

A huge pillar of fire erupted from the ground, directly enveloping the entire willow tree. The flying blades turned to ash in the fierce fire, and the branches entangling Baizhi were all burned off.

Under her veil, Baizhi’s face was crimson. She didn’t dare look at Zhanyue.

“You knew this thing was a demon willow, yet you still rushed over. Demon plants are also demons, with some intelligence,” Zhanyue criticized. This girl was too reckless, seeing points like a dog seeing a bone.

“It’s because you’re here that I let my guard down,” Baizhi defended herself.

“Now you’re blaming me? I’m not omnipotent. Besides, you’re at the ninth stage of Soul Control, almost entering Profound Realm. It’s not good to always rely on someone at the seventh stage of Spirit Communication,” Zhanyue said helplessly.

“The capable should do more work. Who told you to be so powerful?” Baizhi took the red fruit from the charred trunk. Zhanyue wasn’t interested in this thing; they needed to use some things to exchange for points. “You keep it.”

Baizhi didn’t stand on ceremony and accepted these 10,000 points. She had given Zhanyue the right to choose; she wouldn’t ask for anything he wanted, only taking what he didn’t. She was aware of being a burden.

Taking out the map, Zhanyue looked at the markings. Not far away was a ruin that should have been a small town. Where there was a town, there might be remnant information of civilization. The two headed there.

Anything of value in these ruins had long been emptied by others, not even sparing some building materials, leaving only broken walls. Zhanyue didn’t even find a single character here.

Suddenly, a black wildcat appeared on top of a broken stone pillar. It pointed towards the east with its paw, seeming to indicate for Zhanyue and Baizhi to go that way.

“Hm?” Zhanyue curiously looked at this cute wildcat, not expecting spirit beasts in this secret realm to be willing to communicate with humans, although it was daytime now and they weren’t affected by the blood moon.

“Let’s go, follow it and see,” The two closely followed the wildcat as it left. The wildcat would occasionally turn its head back to see if Zhanyue and the others were keeping up.

Soon, Zhanyue and Baizhi were led to a deep part of the wilderness. The smell of blood drifted on the wind. A large number of spirit beasts had gathered here, surrounding two cat demons, one large and one small, in the center. The larger cat demon was also black, but now covered in blood, with several blood-red wounds that looked ghastly. The small cat demon beside it was snow-white all over, timidly hiding beside its mother.

“Did this little black cat come to find help? It’s really grasping at straws. None of these spirit beasts are easy to deal with,” Zhanyue hid in the distance, looking at the spirit beasts in the outer circle. They were all powerful fourth and fifth-grade existences, a full twelve of them.

“What should we do?” Baizhi beside him felt helpless. Those spirit beasts were too strong. Even if she and Zhanyue joined forces, they would just be offering themselves up. After all, even a peak fourth-grade bear demon was so difficult to deal with. That old black cat was already a peak fifth-grade existence, half a step into sixth grade, originally a local demon king level existence that other spirit beasts wouldn’t dare to provoke. Unfortunately, it had failed in its breakthrough attempt and suffered backlash injuries, now being attacked by the group.

“Meow!” The little black cat beside them didn’t care about all that. It directly rushed back. Enduring several attacks, the fourth-grade little black cat finally returned to its mother’s side. Fifth grade was equivalent to the Star Profound level for humans. Among these twelve spirit beasts, four were fifth grade. They were wary of each other and also afraid the old black cat might suddenly counterattack, so they only surrounded without attacking, unwilling to be the first to move and risk being dragged down by the old black cat.

The old black cat looked at the little black cat who had returned after escaping, its eyes full of sorrow. This foolish child had escaped but came back.

“I didn’t expect these beasts to be so loyal,” Baizhi sighed, watching the battle situation from afar. But she was powerless; those three cat demons probably couldn’t escape death.

“So do you think we should save them?” Zhanyue asked.

Baizhi was stunned, then said, “Now is not the time to joke. Don’t go over there.” She was really afraid Zhanyue would impulsively rush over. It was too dangerous.

“Every day you call me a big braggart. If I don’t show some real skills, you’ll really underestimate me. Twelve spirit beast cores are there for the taking. That little black cat is very cute, I like it. That reason is enough,” Zhanyue made up his mind.

“You…” Baizhi wanted to dissuade him, but she saw Zhanyue’s mind move, and a silver armor appeared out of thin air, automatically equipping itself on him. Then Zhanyue took out a top-grade spirit stone and embedded it in the armor.

Although the Sun Divine Stone wouldn’t be destroyed, it also needed time to replenish energy. The power embedded with the Sun Divine Stone was obviously stronger; he wanted to keep it in hand as a trump card.

“Quick battle, quick victory. The energy of the top-grade spirit stone shouldn’t be completely consumed,” Zhanyue, clad in armor, charged over.

Seeing that shining silver armor, Baizhi was a bit dazed. What was that? But his current appearance was too handsome. Baizhi’s heart fluttered at the sight.

Seeing someone interfere, the group of spirit beasts was very dissatisfied. Three spirit beasts immediately surrounded and attacked, while the other spirit beasts continued to encircle the old black cat, preventing it from escaping.

The three spirit beasts were all fourth grade, a wolf, a tiger, and a leopard. Zhanyue didn’t look closely, nor did he need to. His ji halberd smashed the fourth-grade wolf’s head in one strike. Then, activating the Phantom Light Step, he dodged the tiger and leopard’s attacks and with another halberd strike cut the leopard in half. The tiger demon, seeing the situation was unfavorable, wanted to escape, but Zhanyue disappeared and suddenly burrowed out of the ground in front of it, kicking it down and then piercing its belly with the halberd. In just a few breaths, Zhanyue had slain three beasts. Whether it was the other spirit beasts, the cat demons, or Baizhi watching from afar, all fell silent, as if time had stopped.

“How is he so powerful?” Baizhi was left with only confusion.

“(>^ω^<) Meow!” The little black cat cried out joyfully. The reinforcements it had desperately found at random were actually willing to help, and more importantly, they were so strong.

“Meow?” The old cat demon looked at Zhanyue puzzledly, then at its cub, somewhat confused. Its child had run out and actually found strong support.

“Roar!” A fifth-grade two-headed tiger as tall as a person attacked, one head spitting fire, the other spitting smoke. Smoke concealed its form, fire burned the enemy.

“You dare play with fire in front of me?” Zhanyue sneered. A fire dragon formed behind him and then charged towards the two-headed tiger. The two-headed tiger was startled, only to realize this fire dragon was just for show, merely grand in appearance. It didn’t even dodge, as the ordinary fire couldn’t harm its body.

However, Solar Essence Fire was hidden within the fire dragon. This was Zhanyue’s favorite underhanded method, showing weakness to the enemy, hiding skills in clumsiness. The Solar Essence Fire fell on the two-headed tiger, burning it so badly it rolled on the ground.

“One head, two heads!” The ji halberd extinguished both heads, and the fifth-grade spirit beast died on the spot. The death of the two-headed tiger shook the other fifth-grade spirit beasts to their core. This armored man’s strength was too great. How could such a strong human appear in the secret realm? In the past, humans needed at least seven or eight people to kill a fifth-grade spirit beast. He killed the two-headed tiger with a single sweep of his halberd. How was this possible? Had something gone wrong with the secret realm?

“Meow!” Hope reignited in the old black cat’s despairing eyes. Working with this human, there might be a glimmer of hope for survival. It didn’t know what this person’s purpose was, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that. Surviving came first, especially protecting the two children.

It transformed into a residual shadow, and amidst the beasts’ shock, it sneak attacked and killed three fourth-grade spirit beasts. Zhanyue didn’t even see clearly how it attacked. This was its innate divine ability — ‘Charm Shadow’.

Of the twelve spirit beasts involved in the encirclement, one fifth-grade and six fourth-grade had died. Now only three fifth-grade and two fourth-grade remained. Those two fourth-grade spirit beast minions weren’t fools; this battlefield wasn’t something they could participate in. They turned tail and ran.

How could Zhanyue let their spirit cores escape? Two Fierce Explosion Pills shot accurately onto those two spirit beasts, instantly raising two small mushroom clouds in the distance. Both spirit beasts were severely injured, losing their ability to move.

“This thing is really useful. I should have Baizhi refine more,” Zhanyue marveled. This was a rare powerful long-range attack method.

Now the situation suddenly became Zhanyue and the old cat demon teaming up to hunt the remaining three fifth-grade spirit beasts.

The two little cat demons, one black and one white, both looked at Zhanyue with starry eyes.