Free Web NovelChapter 162: Chapter 162: Contract
After the feast ended and the crowd dispersed, inside the wooden guest house of the Bramble tribe.
Sane’s family of five gathered around, observing the rattan sapling. Compared to when it was first caught, the color on the sapling’s body had faded significantly, and its roots showed signs of drying up.
Kaelen lifted the young rattan sapling, placing it in his palm to observe its condition. Its life force was draining away, perhaps because it had been away from the rattan forest for too long. He tilted his head and said to Finnick:
"Finnick, use your Magical Energy to nourish it just like nourishing a normal seed."
The jaguar cub immediately jumped onto the table, closing his eyes. The pattern between his eyebrows lit up, and a pale green stream of light instantly flew out, circling once above the rattan sapling, then enveloping its body.
The half-dead young rattan sapling was instantly pumped full of vitality, stretching its body straight to completely absorb Finnick’s Magical Energy. When Finnick stopped, the rattan sapling flailed its roots in the air for a moment, then gathered momentum to spring up.
Seemingly in a split second, it channeled force into its roots, zooming out with a whoosh. Just as it reached the door, it was violently yanked back by the vine in Kaelen’s hand. Finnick angrily used his right paw to slap the plant’s stem repeatedly. If the rattan sapling could make a sound, it would probably be crying "boohoo" right now.
Sane snorted coldly: "Well done, running away right after getting a good meal, what’s the point of keeping such an insolent thing? Might as well just eat it!"
The roots and the two tendrils of the rattan sapling immediately flailed wildly, seemingly cursing, and cursing very profanely at that.
Kaelen laughed out of anger: "Still dare to curse? Very well, do as he says, I will chop you up right now to stew in soup!"
The rattan sapling trembled, the leaves on its head shaking left and right as if shaking its head. Its two tendrils clasped together as if begging. Kaelen smirked:
"Begging is useless, unless you agree to form a contract with my son, otherwise become food in our stomachs."
Hearing this, the rattan sapling immediately drooped its leaves continuously, as if nodding. Kaelen handed it to Sane, then drew a small array on the ground, making the rattan sapling and Finnick step inside as well. He instructed Finnick: "If it dares to resist or tries to devour you instead, kill it immediately without mercy."
Finnick nodded solemnly, then followed Papa’s instructions, using his claws to make a cut on his forehead. A drop of blood flew out from his forehead, hovering in the air. The wound on Finnick’s forehead healed instantly.
The rattan sapling was initially unwilling, even harboring the thought of devouring Finnick. But when the drop of blood flew out from Finnick’s forehead, the foliage on its head immediately spread out like a peacock’s tail.
Divine Blood! Incredibly pure Wood-attribute Divine Blood!
The rattan sapling couldn’t wait, extending its two tendrils to touch the drop of blood. When the green tendrils and red blood touched, a blinding flash of light suddenly appeared. After the light dissipated, the rattan sapling and Finnick simultaneously closed their eyes, falling together into a certain miraculous realm.
Both of them gradually swelled up. When Finnick reached the state of a one-year-old cub, and the rattan sapling grew as tall as Ryder’s beast form, they both stopped, entering the phase of releasing and compressing energy.
The plants around the Bramble tribe went crazy, competing to break through the soil and sprout. Even the solid wooden logs acting as their house pillars began to sprout. The whole tribe immediately scrambled outside in an uproar, gathering in small groups, screaming as if they had seen ghosts.
Sane had no choice but to go out to stabilize the situation.
The contracting process between Finnick and the rattan sapling didn’t end until near dawn. By this time, the Bramble tribe was submerged in a forest of rattan and trees, looking exactly like being lost in a primeval forest.
Fortunately, Sane had feared his son’s advancement would lead to lightning pouring down, turning everyone into black charcoal, so he had evacuated everyone beforehand. Although no lightning struck, the trees grew with a rumbling sound; if they hadn’t left early, they probably would have been buried in the ground as plant fertilizer.
Just as the dawn light appeared at the horizon, a hearty burst of children’s laughter suddenly rang out from the wooden guest house, the voice somewhat more crisp than other children:
"Haha, finally advanced! This grandaunt has waited for this day for a thousand years!"
"Your laugh sounds awful, shut up!" Another childish voice, carrying a bit of softness mixed with coldness, rang out. The hearty laughter immediately ceased.
Finnick staggered up on his two hind legs, waddling over to spread his arms in front of Kaelen:
"Papa, hug me~ hug me~"
Kaelen looked at his son, who seemed to have eaten growth medicine, rubbing his face speechlessly. He helplessly bent down to pick his son up, carefully checking the boy’s body. Except for the slightly chaotic energy due to the recent advancement, everything else was normal.
He turned to look down at the rattan sapling below. In terms of size, it wasn’t much larger than at the beginning; its color was slightly darker, its roots were a bit more numerous, and the tips of its two tendrils had grown suction cup pads. He asked softly:
"You just called yourself grandaunt, you are a female rattan? A female spirit?"
Towards her master’s father, who was also the person who wanted to slice her up to cook soup yesterday, the rattan sapling appeared quite cautious: "Yes, My Lord. I am a Female Wood Spirit, born in the Ancient era. I only awakened about a thousand years ago."
Kaelen was somewhat surprised, because according to what was recorded in history books, the Beastman continent had always only had two genders: beastman and Sub-Beast; the ’female’ gender had never been mentioned.
He blinked and said: "The ’female’ gender disappeared tens of thousands of years ago, not even mentioned in history. The Ancient era you speak of is perhaps even further back than the ancient era we know."
The rattan sapling tilted the foliage on its head in a daze, saying softly: "My inherited memories only cover that period. After the Gods fell into a deep slumber, we also sank into sleep; I don’t know what happened after that."
"We? Are there many ’spirits’ like you?"
The rattan sapling used its tendrils to rub its foliage, saying: "Initially there were very many, but they all vanished. ’Spirits’ in deep slumber like me are also not many left; I don’t know if they had the good fortune to awaken from the long sleep like me or not. Anyway, for the whole thousand years after awakening, I haven’t sensed them."
The rattan plant shrank its body down to just about two fingers wide, bounced up to land on Kaelen’s shoulder, and said: "My Lord, I think they are still scattered somewhere on this continent."
Kaelen lowered his eyelids slightly, digesting the information the rattan plant provided. A long while later, he said:
"Information about the Primordial era you lived in is too scarce, perhaps I will still need your inherited memories to clarify some matters. However, I will ask you again later, as for now..." Kaelen smiled brightly: "Go out and clean up the aftermath you guys caused!"
Kaelen was so busy questioning Finnick and the rattan sapling that he completely didn’t notice Oliver’s unusual silence. When he took Finnick and the rattan outside to clean up the aftermath, Ryder immediately transformed into his human form, went over to hug Oliver, and comforted him:
"Don’t be sad, later on you will also become as formidable as your older brothers."
Oliver gently shook his head, his lips pouting slightly as if he was about to cry. Ryder didn’t know how to comfort others, but the boy knew how to speak the truth:
"Really, don’t you trust my eyes? My eyes can see that later on you will be a very strong person, incredibly strong."
Oliver’s teary eyes lit up slightly, staring intently at Ryder as if waiting for confirmation. Seeing Ryder nod solemnly, the boy immediately broke into a smile. Ryder secretly breathed a sigh of relief, stealthily taking a few strawberries out of the space to stuff into Oliver’s hands:
"Eat quickly, I secretly planted them in my space. Papa and Finnick don’t even know."
Oliver spread his chubby hands to accept the strawberries, used his Divine Energy to wash them clean, then shared two back with Ryder. The two brothers squatted in the wooden house secretly snacking, waiting until the other three cleaned up the crime scene and returned; the sweet aroma of the strawberries had also completely dissipated.
Oliver smiled sweetly, reaching out his arms to Papa: "Ya ya~ ya ya~"
Kaelen smiled and picked Oliver up, conveniently scooping Ryder up as well, and they all went outside together.
The Bramble tribe’s structure had been completely destroyed; now they could only rebuild from scratch. However, the more than two thousand Crimson warriors were not sitting idle; it only took a few days to rebuild all the houses for the Bramble tribe, even building them larger and sturdier than before.
During these few days, the Chief of the Fang tribe had also come once, expressing a desire to trade with the Crimson merchant caravan. Sane promised that after finishing house repairs and helping the Bramble tribe reclaim land, they would go over to their tribe. Only then did the Fang tribe’s Chief leave satisfied.
Seeing the Fang tribe take the lead, the Chief of the Cinder tribe beat his chest and stomped his feet in anger, pointing at the Priest’s nose and scolding:
"Look at that, just because you kept trying to stop it, their tribe changed direction to the Fang tribe!"
The old Priest widened his cloudy eyes, his voice strained: "Didn’t you see the bizarre phenomenon at the Bramble tribe? It’s too abnormal; our tribe cannot withstand the Beast God’s curse anymore!"
"Curse my ass! I already said it was their warriors advancing! Don’t you know how much the Temple values people with special abilities? You keep worrying about this and that; come winter, our tribe will only have starving to death left!" The Chief roared, saliva flying right into the old Priest’s face.
The old Priest said coldly: "You still dare open your mouth to blame me? If your son hadn’t absconded with half of the tribe’s supplies to run off with that Sub-Beast named Rylan, would our tribe be this poor?!"
Being poked in a sore spot, the Chief’s shoulders slumped, and his previously aggressive demeanor also vanished. The old Priest let out a sigh, massaging his forehead: "I didn’t want to mention it, out of respect for you. But whispers have already started within the tribe. Now if you bring people of unknown origins back, and they destroy our tribe like Bramble, tell me, can you still keep this Chief position of yours?"
"Do I care about the Chief position?" The Cinder Chief said aggrievedly: "I just want the clan members of the tribe to eat their fill. I’d rather take a risk than wait to starve to death!"
Saying that, he took a deep breath, striding quickly out of the wooden house: "I will go there to negotiate with them, whatever the consequences, I will bear them alone."
The old Priest watched the Chief’s back disappear from sight, the blue veins on his temples twitching.
You’ll take responsibility? Take responsibility my ass! A beastman with nothing but teeth above and a navel below like you, what the fuck do you even have left to take responsibility with?!
