The Charm of Soul Pets

Chu Mu knew that there was still a very long ways before he would truly be able to step into the mysterious tenth rank bewildering world, Folding Skies. It was just like the distance with the sky way above him that was hard to surmount.

However, Chu Mu was confident that there would be a day when he would bring his wind and wing type soul pets and contravene the stream of air that would allow millions of mountains to hover in the air, all the way up to the top of the clouds. There, he would truly feel the exhilaration of being on the summit!

“If you head towards Tianxia City, you should encounter a seventh rank bewildering world, which should be connected with an eighth rank bewildering world. There should be a valley nearly as wide as a kingdom in between them. Young master can train in the seventh rank bewildering world, but it wouldn’t be best to go to the eighth rank one.” Old Li quickly brought Chu Mu back to reality.

The tenth rank bewildering world that was far away in the horizon was only something he could look forward to. What he really should be doing was looking down at the path underneath his feet.

Tianxia City’s territory were much larger than several kingdoms put together. On this expansive earth, there were several bewildering worlds that could make Chu Mu’s heart beat rapidly and these were all optimal locations for him to train. Therefore, even if he only needed half a month to reach Tianxia City, he was more willing to spend a month in these bewildering worlds. On one hand it was to raise his strength while on the other it was to accumulate enough gold.

After several months of travel and training, Chu Mu’s White Nightmare had increased to the seventh phase ninth stage. Its fighting strength was still Chu Mu’s strongest soul pet.

Mo Xie, being incited by the White Nightmare, didn’t stop exceeding herself. In these few months, she raised her strength to the seventh phase eighth stage, and Chu Mu predicted that once he arrived at TianXia City and completed the transaction with the person with the Nine Tail Inferno Fox’s Heart, Mo Xie would be able to evolved to the eighth phase after eating it.

The Royal Flame Nine Tail Inferno Fox species rank was a high class commander, but its fighting strength reached the low class monarch level. As the majority of soul pet’s fighting strengths increased, Chu Mu felt that he had to increase Mo Xie’s fighting strength to a middle class monarch. This way, when he encountered an expert like Ting Lan, he would have at least something to fight back with.

The 100 million gold Nine Tail Inferno Fox’s Heart would allow Mo Xie to evolve to the eighth phase second stage and should increase her fighting strength from a low class monarch to somewhere in between that and a middle class monarch.

Items that increased the fighting strength of monarch rank soul pets were extremely expensive. Chu Mu estimated that even if he spent the 100 million to do so, it would still be extremely hard to raise her fighting strength from a low rank to middle rank monarch.

Apart from her, Zhan Ye was currently at the seventh phase fourth stage. Its fighting and defensive strength were exceptionally outstanding, so if he wanted to allow Zhan Ye to burst forth with stronger strength, Chu Mu felt that he had to give it a full form equipment.

A seventh level full form soul equipment was approximately 50 million gold while a seventh level soul armor was approximately 30 million. These two soul equipments would allow Zhan Ye’s fighting strength to reach low class monarch.

Most importantly, Zhan Ye could also use the Brave Stinging Heart to continuously increase its strength. As long as it was wearing full armor, Zhan Ye could exhibit its Brave Stinging Heart. Thus, reaching the eighth phase with low class monarch rank fighting strength definitely wasn’t a problem.

Aside from Zhan Ye, the Night Thunder Dream Beast had stagnated at the seventh phase ninth stage for a very long time.

Chu Mu felt that he had to spend 50 million to buy a spirit item that could make it break through.

The Night Thunder Dream Beast had reached a bottleneck, and it was extremely hard for the demonic aura of normal demons to satisfy it at its current rank. The best method to strengthen it was still incomparably valuable spirit items, after all, the Night Thunder Dream Beast presently didn’t lack fights.

In the past few months, in hopes that the Night Thunder Dream Beats would become his first soul pet to reach the eighth phase, Chu Mu had it participate in fights extremely often. He was sure that as long as he found a suitable spirit item, its phase and stage would increase.

The Ice Air Fairy was presently at the seventh phase ninth stage. Having obtained benefits from Chu Mu’s unceasing absorbing of the ice type spirit item, the Ice Air Fairy’s towering ice crystals had already reached the middle stage, and its fighting strength was already very near a middle class monarch.

Chu Mu estimated that if he had the Ice Air Fairy control glazed ice, its fighting strength would probably reach a high class monarch.

There was a huge discrepancy in strength between a low class and a high class monarch. What was very clear was that it wouldn’t be as simple as Old Li had previously said for the Ice Air Fairy to control glazed ice and reach high class monarch in strength.

The Devil Tree Battle Soldier’s phase and stage were the same as the Ice Air Fairy’s. There evidently was a difficulty to surmount bottleneck between the seventh and eighth phases. It required soul pets to perpetually fight while also requiring extremely effective spirit items. Most of Chu Mu’s soul pets were presently stuck at this stage and if they could surmount it, Chu Mu’s strength would advance by leaps and bounds. If they couldn’t surmount it, Chu Mu had to miserably continue to wander the seventh rank bewildering world and earn a profit that was clearly not enough for his expenses...

In truth, Chu Mu’s ability was already exceptionally strong. Soul pet trainers of his age or older were still wandering sixth rank bewildering worlds in groups and only obtained rewards in the millions each time.

As for many seventh rank title soul pet trainers, when they entered seventh rank bewildering worlds, they would always form teams that were extremely adept at surviving in the wild. Thus, their profits would have to be split and each time, each individual’s profits would be about 10 million.

As for Chu Mu, he had the ability to enter a seventh rank bewildering world by himself. Although he perhaps would spend more time, he would reap all the profits which were about 40 million.

In the eyes of twenty year old soul pet trainers, this strength and these profits were simply a fantasy. However, Chu Mu was able to do this; Nonetheless, he still believed that only by continuously surpassing himself could he raise his strength by huge amounts in the shortest period of time.

Chu Mu had calculated, including the 20 million gold spirit item that the sixth phase ninth stage Ghost King needed, and the 50 million spirit item the White Nightmare needed to reach the eighth phase, that he approximately needed for his soul pets stuck at the seventh phase ninth stage...

“Mo Xie needs 200 million, Zhan Ye 80 million, the Ghost King 20 million, the Devil Tree Battle Soldier 50 million, the Ice Air Fairy 50 million, the Night Thunder Dream Beast 50 million, the White Nightmare 50 million… in total that makes 500 million!!” Chu Mu used his fingers to count and while doing so, he opened his eyes wide.

“I have 60 million on hand and including the captured soul pets I have another 40 million at most. Altogether that’s 100 million. There’s still another 400 million though…” the more Chu Mu calculated the more his heart trembled.

Chu Mu had only bought sixth rank hunting information and he wasn’t lucky enough on his route to have encountered any precious spirit items. Therefore, aside from increasing his soul pets’ strength in the past three months, he had reduced his usual consumption of water, food and spirit items. By doing so, he had made 40 million. Of course, his main goal had been to continue on the path; if he had been concentrating on hunting, he definitely wouldn’t have only made this much...

……

If his soul pets were unable to surmount the seventh phase threshold into the eighth phase, Chu Mu would have to spend a whole 400 million in order to quickly raise his soul pets’ strength. The question was where he would get this 400 million from?!!

If he wandered a sixth rank bewildering world, without any surprises, he would profit somewhere in between 5 to 10 million. A seventh rank bewildering world would be about 40 million.

For 400 million, Chu Mu probably had to wander 10 seventh rank bewildering worlds in order to obtain this much. Furthermore, he couldn’t afford any losses during any of these 10 times.

“Young master, the danger of this seventh rank bewildering world isn’t very high. If you’re careful, you should be able to come and go unobstructedly.” said Old Li.

Chu Mu stood on a tree branch, and stared at the huge basin in front of his eyes...

In a seventh rank bewildering world, there would always be eighth rank commanders protecting the area Chu Mu wanted to obtain spirit items and soul pets in. Occasionally, a ninth phase commander would appear.

All of Chu Mu’s seventh phase monarch soul pets could face an eighth phase commander one on one. Therefore, if he was careful, he would easily be able to obtain the items he wanted.

As for an eighth rank bewildering world, the profits would be over 100 million, but Chu Mu would have to face: tenth rank warriors, ninth phase commanders or eighth phase monarchs… one careless mistake and there potentially could even appear a tenth phase commander, ninth phase monarch...

“One trip through a seventh rank bewildering world requires nearly a month, but the rewards are limited to a measly 40 million. There’s still nine months before the Battle of the Realm. In these nine months I pretty much want to spend all my time here… Old Li, if I can’t raise the average strength of my soul pets to the eighth or ninth phase, how will I even have the qualifications to enter the Battle of the Realm’s second grade?” asked Chu Mu.

“This… this is definite… however, young master can’t be overhasty. You must increase your strength one step at a time. I propose that you spend the remaining nine months training in the seventh rank bewildering world or fight against Battle of the Realm experts. Your soul pets do not have to surmount their bottlenecks through spirit items; they can also do so by continuously fighting. Moreover, as long as you ensure that you raise the strength of the White Nightmare, your small fox, Night, Ning and the old tree to the eighth phase or above, then obtain first place in the third grade, that will already be extremely impressive.”

“After the Battle of the Realm, you can then focus on raising your soul pets to the tenth phase. Tenth phase soul pets are ones that have evolved to the most perfect phase and stage. When that time comes, you can wholeheartedly focus on increasing the rank of your soul pets to a middle class monarch, high class monarch, peak monarch, or even raise a new soul pet…” said Old Li.

Chu Mu shook his head. If Chu Tianmang had already distinguished himself in the second grade the first time he participated in the Battle of the Brealm and now he was unable to surpass him, then how could he speak about reclaiming his honor?!

Finally, Chu Mu made a decision and said one word at a time:

“I want to enter the eighth rank bewildering world!”