The Charm of Soul Pets (WN)

“I’ve also heard from a senior who has been reclusive for many years mention this. He said that there was a half human half pet many years ago whose nose was even more sensitive than a dog’s; he was an expert at finding spirits. Among us human experts, we don’t lack people who can fight against tribes, nor do we have people who are afraid of death so much so that they refuse to enter forbidden regions to seek breakthroughs. Instead, the reality is that spirits are just too hard to find. Often, people may slaughter for half a year and suffer heavy losses, but will only earn spirits that will only last one a few years, let alone increasing one’s strength. One would be lucky to not have lost strength.

I obtained this senior’s guidance, and the situation seemed slightly better. However, what this senior knew was limited. Forbidden regions are huge and definitely contain innumerable spirits. Tribe emperors are huge, and if one doesn’t know how to find spirits, one will still end up with a miserable death regardless of your strength.

That senior told me that with the half human half pet, one would become the world’s utmost expert at finding spirits. He told me that he’s still alive and hiding somewhere in our Western Region. The reason why I came back was partly to test my luck, and see if I could find this spirit expert… oh, also, this is a big secret.” Chu Tianren carefully said.

Chu Mu was extremely astonished. It was no wonder that there were not many humans, despite there being numerous experts, who entered forbidden regions. Spirits were so hard to find, and killing could end up as useless.

Every tribe didn’t always have a spirit source, nor would every tribe stockpile a huge amount of spirits.

There was a high chance that slaughtering a tribe could only net one a month’s worth of resources. And if one’s luck wasn’t good and one attacked at the end of the month, one month’s resources would become even less. The only consolation would be inner crystals.

Unless one’s luck was suddenly extremely good, and one encountered an infant emperor or some hundred year spirit item, then that would be better. However, the chances of this were even lower.

“Can Third Uncle describe the approximate appearance of this half human half pet?” asked Chu Mu. He had already begun to guess what he was referring to.

“I’m not too sure either. I only know he’s got a small figure. Why? You seem to have seen him before?” Chu Tianren immediately asked.

At this moment, Old Li in Chu Mu’s spatial ring finally couldn’t sit still and hastily used soul remembrance to tell Chu Mu: “Young master, you absolutely cannot say that you’ve seen me before!!”

“Hmph, you old fellow still want to hide, eh?” Chu Mu silently sneered, and used soul remembrance to reply to Old Li.

“Young master, I will properly explain everything! But you absolutely cannot let people who know my real identity know. This includes your family! Otherwise it will bring you a huge calamity!!” Chu Mu hastily said.

As expected, it was Old Li! He was the expert at finding spirits from the past century!

After Old Li gave his confession, Chu Mu was still greatly shocked!!

Although he had guessed that Old Li who had been accompanying as a servant wasn’t so simple, he never expected that he was such a hot figure among spirit emperors.

Having spent time with Old Li for so long, Chu Mu never expected this fellow to have some special skill aside from his plethora of knowledge.

Chu Mu had to respect Old Li’s wishes so he didn’t change his expression, and said to Chu Tianren: “I’ve never seen him before. I just think it’s very strange that there exists a half human half pet in this world.”

“Haha, this world has many strange things. You haven’t been to many places, and naturally won’t know. I’ll go and look for him first. You can stay in the family and rest for the time being. When the time comes, we’ll depart. If we can’t find that person, we can only search ourselves.” Chu Tianren didn’t really mind.

After speaking with Chu Tianren, Chu Mu left his courtyard and returned to his own place.

Chu Mu’s room had already been cleaned and there seemed to remain a lingering fragrance. He wasn’t sure which considerate woman had helped him clean.

Chu Mu closed the door, and rudely pulled on Old Li from the spatial ring.

“Explain.” Chu Mu sat on a chair and looked very serious.

The small Mo Xie lay on Chu Mu’s shoulder and let out a few cries. She seemed to indicate that if he didn’t properly explain, some great punishment would await.

“That expert at finding spirits from the last century was me. I never expected that fifty, sixty years later, someone would still remember me…” Old Li helplessly spread his hands.

“Young master has now reached the emperor rank, but you probably still don’t understand how precious spirits are. Spirits are energy and what emperor rank soul pets must consume otherwise their strength will be too meager. Additionally, spirits can be collected together and combined into spirit items through strengthening from a soul teacher. These, in turn, can be used to strengthen an emperor rank soul pet.

However, the majority of spirit sources are located in forbidden regions. Most tribes in forbidden regions contain spirit sources, but those are all old spirit sources. Even if humans were to invade and slaughter their way through, their gains would be limited. Therefore, to humans, new unexcavated spirit sources with the extra spirits from being the first one there are the most precious. After all, humans cannot establish themselves in a forbidden region for a long period of time to collect spirits.”

Chu Mu saw that Old Li was about to launch into another long ramble and hastily stopped him. He instead said; “Just tell me if you can find spirit sources, and tell me exactly how good you are as a so-called spirit finding expert.”

Being asked this, Old Li looked rather high and mighty. He stroked his silver wire-like beard and arrogantly said: “Using a ranking system analogy to convey this, if the best spirit searching expert among humans were at the commander rank, then I would be considered an emperor rank! Moreover, I can definitely tell you that those human spirit searching experts that reach the commander rank are only so few. In my opinion, they barely understand anything.”

“That incredible? You aren’t lying to me?” Chu Mu was somewhat shocked.

When Old Li was flaunting himself off, he would often say half-truths. Therefore, Chu Mu felt that his words needed to be taken with a grain of salt.

Being questioned by Chu Mu like this, Old Li immediately shot back with his eyes wide open: “Of course it’s true. Could young master have forgotten that I used to follow my master to sweep through forbidden regions? How many people do you think dare to go on a rampage through forbidden regions? I can tell you that my old master was one of the very few pinnacle experts in human history.

Young master, as a peak human expert, why else would he bring me, this half human? Furthermore, back then, I was still young and my knowledge of soul pets wasn’t as rich as it is now.”

Old Li spoke very self-righteously, and Chu Mu could tell that Old Li was very confident about this.

“Ok, I believe you.” Chu Mu nodded his head.

Since Old Li was able to detect the spirit source in Barbarian Mountain Range while it was still in its hidden stage and tell him while he was still in Tianxia City, it meant that this old fellow really did have the ability to find spirits.

The reality was that Chu Mu was extremely happy about this. He never expected that the old fellow he was bringing along was not only a soul pet encyclopedia but also a spirit finding experts that could make the eyes of human experts red with jealousy!

“So you’re telling me that wherever we go next, we’ll essentially be able to find new spirits/” a smile rose on Chu Mu’s face.

The biggest problem right now was his lack of spirits, since Zhan Ye required four times the resources while the Little Hidden Dragon six times the resources…

The truth about Old Li was a very welcomed surprise. If he was able to obtain several tens of thousands of spirits at the drop of a hat, it probably wouldn’t be long that Chu Mu’s strength would surpass most spirit emperors!!

“Young master, this old fellow originally planned on going into reclusion. Originally, my reclusion was going great. I hadn’t done something like that for fifty years, and even Her Majesty didn’t know about it. I never expected that at such an old age, I ended up running around with you, this young man. Truly very tormenting…” Old Li let out a sigh, and looked like a helpless elder.

However, Old Li’s eyes quickly lit up and he said: “But, young master’s strength has risen much quicker than what I thought. If young master is able to finish a task, I will definitely help young master search for spirits for free! Moreover, it will be huge spirit sources that humans are incapable of finding!”

As long as Old Li was willing to help him search for spirits, the rest wasn’t a problem. It seemed that six years later when he went to Wanxiang City, that woman would definitely be enslaved by him. He thought of that defector young woman sitting so high and mighty above, becoming his slave that listened to his every order, and he couldn’t help but smile.

“Tell me what it is.” Chu Mu said.

“I’ll tell you in the future. Right now young master’s strength is far from enough. I’ll help you find spirits as best as I can to raise your strength.” Old Li earnestly said.

“Is it a matter that surpasses emperors?” Chu Mu bitterly laughed. He had already reached the emperor rank, yet his strength was far from enough. Exactly how terrifying was Old Li’s matter?

At this moment, Old Li looked very profound as he said to Chu Mu: “Young master, most spirit emperors are unable to increase their strength due to a lack of spirits. But now that young master has my valuable assistance, do you still feel that surpassing the emperor rank is unattainable? Further adding your small fox that is capable of mutating, the Little Hidden Dragon with an Empyrean Cyan Hidden Dragon bloodline, the strongest half devil form, and Zhan Ye that is capable of fighting above its rank, with enough resources and training, it’s absolutely possible for you to surpass the emperor rank. You need to understand that my previous master stood at the very apex of humanity. Until now, nobody has surpassed him!’

Old Li was full of confidence as he spoke. Chu Mu saw a rare shimmer in Old Li’s eyes that made his heart surge with emotions!

Surpassing the emperor rank!!

That meant that Chu Mu could not only enslave the defector young woman, but could also completely overthrow human territory’s deep-rooted and authoritative Soul Alliance!!

“Since you can help me search for spirits, then I won’t waste any time here. Let’s head to Great Broken Sting Valley as soon as possible!” Chu Mu didn’t plan on resting too long in the Chu Family. In truth, having him, who was a training fanatic, rest for a long time made him uncomfortable.

“Nonetheless, even if it is Chu Tianren, young master cannot divulge my secret. Young master should find another excuse, and tell him that you heard from some expert that there’s a spirit source in Great Broken Sting Valley. Then you can get rid of that third rank tribe with him. Afterwards, young master will pretty much reach the spirit emperor rank, and most of your soul peets will increase in strength.” said Old Li.