Translator: Tamon
Xu Hei was speechless.
He knew just how thickheaded the dog was. Anything other than a yes was unacceptable. The dog would pester him to no end, coming up with all sorts of creative ways to wear down his resistance until he’d become a yes-snake.
Xu Hei said, “Alright, but stop calling me disciple. I have a name, Xu Hei.”
“Xu Hei!” The dog beamed. “Nice, disciple, you even named yourself. Though the name could use a little work.”
Xu Hei walked out on him, crawling out of his cave.
After two months, he was once again going out to fight. He just wanted it over with and return to staying cooped up in the coziness of his lair.
“Follow me.” The dog took point rushing ahead.
Xu Hei was behind him. He made sure to keep his distance to ditch the dog when danger struck.
The dog shared his common sense and knowledge as they traveled.
“Xu Hei, did you know the name of this kingdom?”
“Chu Kingdom.”
“Then you must also know how many cultivator sects it has.”
Xu Hei spoke, “I only know of the Snake Catchers Sect.”
The dog laughed. “Chu Kingdom has five areas, each with its own large sect. Frost in the north, Kunlun in the west, Penglai in the east, Snake Catchers in the south. As for the middle, it’s none other than the court’s Celestial Monitoring Bureau. These five rule all other sects.”
Xu Hei asked, “Is the Snake Catchers Sect that strong?”
“Barely two stars, but in the old times, it was known as the strongest. It was also Xia Kingdom who ruled back then. That was two hundred years ago…” The dog trailed off.
Xu Hei didn’t push, not wanting to get this stronger dog’s ire.
The dog and snake took a day to reach their target.
It was an insignificant little sect, the Unfettered Sect, under the Snake Catchers Sect’s jurisdiction. They had five Foundation Establishment elders and a Foundation Establishment leader.
Five peaks surrounded by plains was where the Unfettered Sect made their home.
The dog paused before the start of one of the peaks.
Xu Hei approached by moving from bush to bush.
“Hey, see that mountain? How many Spirit Tail Chicken do you think it has?” The dog pointed at the sharp incline.
Xu Hei’s eyes spotted many colorful Spirit Tail Chicken roaming about and pecking the ground.
These particular fowls were way larger, like mountain goats, strutting like they owned the place.
“An early Foundation Establishment old coot lives on this mountain. The hundred chickens on it are all his!” The dog smiled.
Xu Hei’s Divine Sense told him there was a faint shimmer at the start of the mountain blocking him from sensing further.
He probed it with his body and he felt a formless wall blocking his entry.
“This is the array’s shield, blocking outsiders. Not me, though.”
The dog snickered and took black dust out of nowhere, sprinkling it on the shield.
The shield shrank back around the dust, making a thirty-meter large gap.
The dog placed a spiritual insect on the gap.
“This spiritual insect is a delicacy to Spirit Tail Chickens. Wait for my signal and we’ll move as one to grab as many as we can before bolting.” The dog grinned.
“Mm.” Xu Hei’s breath spiked.
Time inched forward as Xu Hei and the dog waited underground for the Spirit Tail Chickens to take the bait.
One chicken spotted the spiritual insect and rushed over, with others following close. There were a dozen of them.
The chickens were too dumb to notice the danger, too dumb to take precautions.
“Here they come, now get ready.” The dog shouted.
Xu Hei held his breath while his Divine Sense spread to warn him of any human ambush.
“Now!” The dog barked.
He jumped out of the ground and bit on a chicken while his paws moved with speed on another two.
The Spirit Tail Chickens didn’t get to struggle for the dog’s nose puffed out black energy that froze them stiff.
Xu Hei jumped into action by throwing the Beast Trapping Ring.
It expanded while he had Attraction control three Spirit Tail Chickens to be lumped together as he stayed ten meters below ground.
“Grab!!”
Xu Hei spoke, and the Beast Trapping Ring shrank over the three chickens’ necks, two late and one mid-level.
He had to admit it, the chickens had high cultivation but no strength, raised just to end up on the dinner table.
It was no different from humans raising a tiger in a pen. With all its life being limited to four walls, it had no chance to fight and kill, oblivious to dangers. Letting it loose into the wild would be a death sentence the minute it faced a real threat.
Even an aggressive hunting dog could put it in its place.
Despite all that, these Spirit Tail Chickens had plenty of Spiritual Energy. Xu Hei and the dog had an easy time controlling them, only because the two had the means to do it.
“Time to go!” The dog grabbed the three chickens and fled with Earthen Motion.
An angry roar came from above, blasting their ears.
“So you’re the mongrel that stole my last two chickens!”
Xu Hei set the Beast Trapping Ring to take the three chickens into the ground when the voice came.
He cared not for who spoke, running off with Earthen Motion once he had the chickens.
The dog wasn’t so lucky, only sinking a third of the way into the ground with Earthen Motion when the soil turned hard as stone.
“Harden!”
A white-bearded elder arrived on his flying sword as his hands made signs.
The earth a hundred meters around turned hard like granite, blocking Earthen Motion.
The dog changed tactics, biting on one chick, while the other were held under each limb. He stood up on his hind legs and ran like a human.
What made it funnier was that he was so fast that he could keep up with Xu Hei underground.
“Wha…” Xu Hei and the old man were both gawking.
[What the hell kinda dog is that? The dog grew a brain?]
“Halt, you mongrel!”
The elder flew over on his sword. He was a genuine Foundation Establishment cultivator, not a fake like Chen Daoling.
“So you can fly, but so can I!”
Two talismans flew out at the dog’s mental urgings and stuck to his legs.
They now moved so fast, they vanished, leaving an afterimage as he kicked up dust behind him.
Whoosh!
The winds he let out with his movements carried him higher and higher as he sped into the horizon with his haul.