The next morning Misaki and the girls got up to the smell of food being cooked. It seemed the two boys had been able to kill a few small animals without running into any demonic beasts. "Smells good. I am surprised you know how to cook." Misaki said to Cui Shun.
"Ahh Well, I used to spend a lot of time outdoors, so I kind of just picked it up." Cui Shun explained.
"It's good to know. Besides being bait you will now be..." Misaki turned her head to look at the winged lion that was slowly crawling away and snorted: "Where do you think you are going?"
"Ahah Well, you see my goddess, it's like this. I have a family of twenty back at my cave, who are waiting for me, their father to return. I must make sure they have food and other necessities..." The winged lion began to babble nonstop causing Misaki to rub her temples.
"Stop! Enough of the crap spilling from your mouth. You will stay with us and become my Yan'er's bed at night. If I see you trying to escape again I will tear the wings off your back, try to escape a third time I pull off your tail. Try to escape a fourth time..." Misaki continued to tell the winged lion everything she was going to rip off causing the color to drain from the winged lion's fur. "Do you understand!?"
"Yes!" The winged Lion lowered its head, tears forming in its eyes. It had never been so disgraced in its entire life. It knew that its story was a lie to escape the clutches of this human but it had no choice. It did not want to have its brothers finding out that its status was lowered to a cozy bed for a mere human.
Misaki and her group stayed four days inside the inner zone of the forest. They had seen and killed many high level demonic beasts while the poor winged lion followed them around. But since there were only two days left, Misaki felt it was time to go snatch cores from people. "Time to head back. We will now commence operation, Steal Cores!"
"Mitsu, are we really going to do that?" Chen Huo asked.
"Mmm! This is the fun part. I just wanted to wait until they gathered lots of cores before striking. Don't worry I won't kill anyone. I will just smash them into the ground until they are six feet under!" Misaki said with a laugh.
Chen Huo gave an awkward smile as he internally asked himself: "What was the difference?"
Misaki forced the winged lion to give everyone a ride. Cui Shun and Chen Huo were forced to sit near the tail since Misaki did not want a man near her Qian Yan. They only spent a half day returning to the first ring of the forest where Misaki spotted their first prey fighting a pack of horned wolves. The group of five seemed to be on the losing side due to the sheer number of wolves.
Misaki waved her hand turning every horned wolf below into mists of blood before telling the winged lion to land. "Shun, Huo, go collect the cores that dropped from the wolves. I will take care of the negotiations with our dear sect mates."
Cui Shun and Chen Huo let out a sigh. They did not dare to even look in the direction of the disciples who were about to lose their pants. They went right to work picking up the cores. Misaki on the other hand was all smiles as she walked over to the disciples. One young man walked over and cupped his hands and bowed to Misaki as he said: "Thank you for your help just now.
"Mmmm. Yeah Hand them over." Misaki answered, which confused the young man.
"Umm? What do you mean by hand over? Hand over what?" The young man asked.
"The cores you all have collected, come on now. Hand them over or I will need to strip you all naked and hang you upside down from a tree. I do not have much time, so let's make this quick shall we?" Misaki smiled brightly as she winked at the girls behind the young man and said: "Girls are no exception. I will strip you naked as well so hurry up."
The girls' faces paled as they quickly began fishing out their demonic beast cores and piling them on the ground. The young man also did as he was told and began reluctantly taking out his demonic beast cores. Misaki saw the rings on the disciples' fingers and thought for a second before saying: "Give up your rings too."
"Our what!?" The young man asked as he stared at Misaki in disbelief. "Is it not enough that you are taking our hard earned demonic beast cores? Now you want our belongings too?"
"I said give me the rings so give them to me. If you wish to be strung up naked then so be it. Either you give or become naked. " Misaki's smile never left her face the entire time. The group of disciples could only hand over their rings as well. Being strung up naked was a humiliation they would never be able to live down. Once they did, Misaki sent them on their way. Just like this Misaki began to move through the forest with her team. Very quickly the number of cores in her possession reached almost five thousand.
The final day of the test had arrived and everyone was now supposed to exit the forest. Misaki and her group were the first to arrive. The winged lion she had tormented this entire time was excited thinking it could finally escape from this human. But sadly its excitement only lasted a short while when Misaki said: "From now on you will follow me. It seems Yan'er has taken a liking to you and has named you Cutey Cuddles. So Cutey Cuddles you will follow us from now on. "
Hearing its new name, the winged lion who in its entire life had been male now being called Cutey Cuddles fainted on the spot.
***
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