The Charm of Soul Pets (WN)

“When a Mo Ye is born, it means a cruel beginning. The species of Mo Ye doesn’t reproduce often. However, every time they gave birth, they would create many offspring, up to twenty.”

“Mo Ye was the most irresponsible, yet the most responsible beast species towards their offspring. After they gave birth, they would feed them all once and immediately pit them against each other to force them to fight.”

“Why? It’s simple. An adult Mo Ye couldn’t possibly nurture that many offspring. They could only provide the food and protection for one to two younglings at most. To let keep this battle species alive, adult Mo Ye had to use this cruel method to pick one to two of the healthiest Mo Ye from their twenty kids.”

“The abandoned Zhan Ye wouldn’t be killed by the adult Mo Ye. Instead, adult Mo Ye would throw these innately less gifted Mo Ye randomly in different places to let them live on their own.

“Most warrior rank soul pets had more powerful soul pets of their species protecting them. At commander rank, meeting a completely unprotected commander rank was nigh impossible.

Yet, the Mo Ye species was a special case. Many times, one could find a Mo Ye under second phase wandering around in a forest alone. These Mo Ye are merciless towards their foes, but they’re more often found alone, laying in a cave and silently licking their own wounds. These Mo Ye were the ones thrown away by their parents at birth…….”

“If it were just servant rank or warrior rank, it may be able to grow up slowly in calmer environments. After all, servant and warrior ranks were everywhere. However, commander rank soul pets were a great threat to many territorial soul pets, so they wouldn’t let them mature. Many of these abandoned Mo Ye would die before third phase. Only one percent, or even less, could live through this ……”

“Yet, what is respectable is every abandoned Mo Ye that managed to survive through all these hardships often finally become the strongest king of the entire species! This was the rule of survival for Mo Ye!!”This was all Chu Mu remembered about the species of Mo Ye. When he had first heard of this merciless method, Chu Mu gained true respect for the species.

On the east foot of the giant mountain, the sun spilled down and filled the entire forest. Chu Mu half leaned on a tree in the light-speckled forest. His eyes watched the rays of light that sneaked through the leaves. Listening to Old Li’s description of the events that just happened, the only thing echoing through his head was the description of the Mo Ye species that Chu Tiancheng had told him very early on…...

“Chu Mu, I will find a way to get you some Soul Healing Stamen to let your soul recover in the shortest time.” Princess Jin Rou half-sat beside Chu Mu and lightly consoled.

Princess Jin Rou also lost a soul pet of her own, but she knew that, compared to the relationship between Chu Mu and that Mo Ye, the wounds she felt were nothing.

Chu Mu shook his head and slowly stood up, his eyes gazing the massive mountain.

“Mo Xie, White Nightmare, it’s time we leave.” Chu Mu didn’t mind Princess Jin Rou’s words, choosing to step forward instead.

Mo Xie and White Nightmare immediately ran to Chu Mu’s side. No matter what Chu Mu’s decision was, they wouldn’t question it at all, even if they were going to take revenge upon the female master right now.

“Chu Mu, where are you going?” Princess Jin Rou saw that they were about to leave and quickly pulled him back.

Princess Jin Rou knew that Chu Mu was currently holding back the anger in his heart. She didn’t want to see Chu Mu become brash due to Mo Ye’s death and go fight the female master right now. That way, both Chu Mu and his soul pets would die.

“It didn’t die.” Chu Mu’s emotions were very calm, and seemed no different from usual, but his black eyes were actually concealing all his feelings, hiding them so deep that no one could understand what he was currently thinking.

“It’s been so long, there’s no chance it’s still alive. Chu Mu you have to face the reality!” Princess Jin Rou felt that Chu Mu was losing his rationality.

“It is still alive.” Chu Mu replied lightly as he had already leaped onto Mo Xie’s back.

“Young Master, the Poisonous Mental Bite may have caused some confusion in your mind. It fell into the nest of thousand feet millipedes. There’s thousands upon thousands of thousand feet millipedes…...There isn’t much time left for the realm passing. What you have to do right now is stay calm, rationally turn around, pass through this forest, dodge the puppet, and reach Lake Chen. Then, you should heal your soul and find another chance to deal with the female puppet in eighth and ninth realm, and not go kill yourself in the thousand feet millipede cave……”

“Even if it truly is alive, how would you save it? Countless thousand feet centipede and a top tier monarch rank ten thousand feet millipede, you wouldn’t even be able to reach the bottom of the pit!” Old Li pulled Chu Mu aside and said very sternly.

Princess Jin Rou nodded, “The event has already happened. Don’t worry, we’ll find the Soul Healing Stamen for you. There’s still hope in the following realms, don’t be brash.”

Chu Mu turned around and eyed Princess Jin Rou for a while.

Princess Jin Rou thought Chu Mu had finally cooled down. Her face let out a pale yet sadly beautiful smile, though this smile was hidden under a thin veil…...

Finally, Chu Mu opened his mouth. As he spoke, his eyes shone with determination. This expression meant that no one could change Chu Mu’s mind anymore.

“I won’t let it get abandoned a third time.” Chu Mu said expressionlessly.

After saying it, Chu Mu patted Mo Xie and disregarded all of Old Li and Princess Jin Rou’s advice, running towards the huge cave in the mountain.

Flying beside Chu Mu was his White Nightmare, similarly leaving a long white devil flame trail as it kept tightly beside Chu Mu.

After a moment, Chu Mu had already run a few hundred meters out. Princess Jin Rou watched, lost, at Chu Mu’s slowly leaving figure. She couldn’t understand why, after the tragedy had happened, he would want to go back.

In that abyss, there were countless thousand feet millipedes. They were undefeatable opponents, even scarier than the female master. Yet, what was pushing the man to kill his way back into the corpse ridden, rotten, and death filled abyss without any hesitation? Was it simply because his soul pact hadn’t been broken yet, and the Mo Ye was still laying at the bottom of the abyss gulping its last breath?

There was no chance the Mo Ye was going to live…....

Princess Jin Rou didn’t understand if Chu Mu couldn’t accept the reality and was simply looking for death in the abyss, or if he was he jumping back into the death pit because his soul pet was still alive, no matter how close it was to death.

Watching Chu Mu leave determinedly, Princess Jin Rou saw something she never once had. He had nothing to do with rationality, with reality, with life or death at this moment. He was basing everything simply on a hard to understand “faith”, something no other soul pet trainer would do…...

Zhan Ye was innately inept, causing its body to be especially weak and tiny.

Chu Mu understood the survival rules of the Mo Ye species, so Zhan Ye must have been a weak soul pet that had been thrown away not long after birth.

It grew on its own, battling under cruel circumstances alone.

Even without seeing the entire growth process of Zhan Ye, Chu Mu knew that its maturing process was a constant struggle between blood, sweat, and tears.

Humans sign contracts with soul pets to strengthen themselves. Similarly, many weaker soul pets used humans to survive. Zhan Ye was lucky to sign a soul pact with a human. At least, humans knew how to make a soul pet grow in the safest and most logical manner, letting it become stronger than its species.Yet, Zhan Ye was abandoned by the soul pet trainer named Yang, becoming an abandoned soul pet.

Having been lied to once, hurt once, wanting it to believe a human became incredibly hard, especially since the wound it suffered was carved deep into its soul.

When Chu Mu signed the soul pact with Zhan Ye, he had sworn on his soul to make it stronger and cause it to break the limits of its species. Unless they died, he would never remove the soul pact, and never abandon it!

In front of Chu Mu was a soul pet that went against the soul pact, threw Chu Mu away without care, caused great harm to him, as well as heavily stamped on his self-esteem. Indubitably, she was a powerful emperor species, having utmost power, but her heart and soul were filthy and petty!

Behind Chu Mu was Zhan Ye who fell into the abyss. It had already been abandoned twice, yet it was still willing to sacrifice itself for its owner in crucial moments. Initially, Zhan Ye was so weak it couldn’t survive in its little forest, being easily beaten by Mo Xie. Yet, in Chu Mu’s eyes, Zhan Ye was from beginning to end the noblest of life.

Chu Mu would not abandon his soul pets, let alone for a third time abandon a powerful, lonely, proud Mo Ye that survived in this survival-of-the-fittest world!

Maybe, this was the thing Princess Jin Rou could never understand. Chu Mu had a belief he held adamantly. No matter if others saw it as stupid or rash, as long as Zhan Ye stayed alive strongly, as long as the soul contract was still there, there was no reason for Chu Mu to give it up to the depths of the abyss.

...

In the space of the rock barrier, the thousand feet millipede corpses were already near ten meters in height. A putrid smell covered a large portion of the outside already. Many more hibernating thousand feet millipedes sensed the unrest. It no longer seemed like some fight between fellow thousand feet millipedes. “Sisisi~~~~~~~~”

Countless legs shuffled as a fifty meter long thousand feet millipede slowly opened its eyes to gaze at its fellow species’ blood ooze out from the rock barrier.

Finally, this behemoth moved its body to lead a few tenth phase thousand feet millipedes towards the rock barrier.

Inside the corpse filled barrier, Zhan Ye seemed to have gone back to its infant stage. It was alone in a corner, lightly licking its wounds to let them heal back together…...

At this moment, Zhan Ye had already crossed into tenth phase, momentarily entering the complete stage of Mo Ye maturity!!