Chapter Forty-One: Seizing by Force and Greed

“Wake him up first!” Chu Tian pointed at Baston, then added, “Just make him conscious, but don’t let him recover his strength!”

“Don’t worry, boss!” Barbosa replied with a sinister smile, squatting down to fiddle with Baston. “All done—now he couldn’t even win against a child!”

“Heh heh! Praise be to the Goddess of Life!” Chu Tian grinned wickedly as he pressed Dracula’s Wrath against the slowly awakening Baston’s throat, the crackling flames scorching his skin and flesh. “Honorable minotaur warrior, how about we make a deal?”

“You… despicable!” Baston, now fully awake, immediately understood what had happened. He tried to stand, only to find himself utterly drained of strength. “I never thought that a student of Master Anthony would stoop to such deeds!”

“Praise the Goddess of Life! She once said, ‘If wisdom can solve your enemy, do not use force.’ Haven’t you heard that before? Well, I suppose a barbarian like you wouldn’t have.” Chu Tian replied slyly.

“You!” Baston was furious beyond reason, but dared not argue. He truly couldn’t recall whether the Goddess had ever spoken such words, given his limited education. As a devout worshiper, he reluctantly accepted Chu Tian’s claim. Yet, as his anger faded, he suddenly remembered he still had a magical companion. He howled, summoning his mammoth, “Kill these people!”

Though Baston gave the command, nothing happened. “Master, uncle is a good person. Don’t kill him, okay?”

Praise be to the Goddess of Life—Baston nearly spat blood in rage, but Chu Tian quickly made him do so for real. “Good child, here, I have some wine! Take it and drink over there. Bring your little friends along, too!” With that, Chu Tian emptied all his wine from the spatial necklace.

“Thank you, uncle! Little ones, come with me, let’s go drink!” The mammoth happily gathered the wine jars and ran off with the wild wolves, leaving Baston utterly alone and broken. “What… what do you want now?!”

“Praise the Goddess of Life, don’t worry, I won’t harm you!” Chu Tian put away Dracula’s Wrath, smiling serenely. “I just want to make a deal with you.”

“A deal? Fine! If you don’t hurt me, I’ll let you go!” Apparently, this mission was doomed to fail.

“No, no, no!” Chu Tian wagged his finger. “Your life is in my hands now, so how can you decide to let me go?”

“Then what do you want? The mammoth? Impossible!” Baston, clever as he was, saw through part of Chu Tian’s intentions, but only part.

“Exactly! I want the mammoth. Poor child, he’s suffered too much under you…” Chu Tian spoke with mock compassion. “Give him to me, and I’ll restore your battle energy.”

Baston secretly tested himself and found not a trace of battle energy left—an unbearable blow for a sword saint. “Fine, I’ll give him to you!”

“But I tamed the mammoth through strength, not contract. You’ll have to convince him yourself!” A magical pet can always be replaced, but losing battle energy meant losing everything. So Baston made the wise choice.

“Heh, as long as you agree, leave the rest to me!” Chu Tian glanced toward the distance, where the mammoth was playing joyfully with the wild wolves. He pointed at AK47: “Leave this to you. Do it well, and you’ll get thirty extra gold coins for food!” When dealing with children, women always have the advantage.

“Don’t worry, boss!” AK47’s eyes sparkled with gold as she walked over to the mammoth. “Come, little elephant, Auntie has delicious treats for you!”

With the mammoth settled, Chu Tian posed a second question: “Who sent you to kill me? Was it Andor, the Right Chancellor of Caesar?”

Baston shut his eyes and answered firmly, “The honor of a sword saint forbids me from answering. You’ll have to kill me instead!”

Er… Chu Tian was taken aback. The so-called dignity of the strong on the Phantom Beast Continent was a headache indeed. Clearly, Baston wouldn’t talk. “Praise the Goddess of Life! I respect your honor and won’t press further.”

Baston gave Chu Tian a grateful look, feeling somewhat guilty, so he hinted, “All I can tell you is that it has nothing to do with Andor.”

So it wasn’t Andor? Chu Tian was puzzled but temporarily set the matter aside, for more pressing issues remained. “How did you transport so many wild wolves and the mammoth here to this dry land?” This was the question Chu Tian most wanted answered. With the Zeppelin down, how would they cross the swamp to Mount Agula? The fact Baston brought so many beasts meant he must possess a massive means of transport!

“Uncle!” At that moment, the mammoth bounced after AK47, causing the earth to tremble again.

“All sorted?” Chu Tian whispered to AK47.

“No problem!” AK47 answered, satisfying Chu Tian.

“Uncle, Auntie says that if I follow you, I can eat ten pig beasts every day—is that true?” The mammoth tapped Chu Tian with its trunk, almost unable to believe it. Even Baston smacked his lips in surprise, staring at Chu Tian. Pig beasts were the most common edible magical creatures on the continent—large, meaty, and cheap. A few silver coins would buy one. But that was only true in Caesar; on the famine-stricken Xuanhe Prairie, they were far more expensive, and Baston, a prince and chieftain, only received a few daily!

Chu Tian was speechless. Were all magical pets on the Phantom Beast Continent abused by their owners? “Good child, if you help uncle fight, uncle will give you ten pig beasts every day!”

“Oh! Thank you, uncle!” The mammoth replied happily. “I love fighting most. Fighting and getting pig beasts to eat—wonderful!”

“By the way, uncle doesn’t know your name yet!” Chu Tian squinted, already planning the second weapon for his magical beast army. Meanwhile, AK47 and Little White grimaced at the mammoth, suspecting that, judging by their own names, this young elephant’s codename wouldn’t be much better.

“I don’t have a name, but everyone calls me Little Six.”

Little Six? Chu Tian nearly fainted at the name—it sounded far too much like a certain profession back on Earth. “Why do they call you Little Six?” AK47 asked, finally finding a name worse than her own.

“Because my strength is the sixth greatest!” Little Six replied proudly. “But now I’m the second strongest, since Big One, Two, Three, and Four brothers have no strength anymore!”

Hearing this string of uninspired names, Chu Tian concluded: Orcs are truly uncultured!

“Are your four brothers golden Behemoth beasts?” Chu Tian suddenly thought of this—among beastmen, only golden Behemoths could rival mammoths in strength, and their lack of power was probably thanks to Crimson Flame’s handiwork.

“Yes, uncle! How did you know?” Little Six asked curiously. “Now only Sister Skylark, who brought us here, is stronger than me!”

“Sister Skylark? Is she a seventh-tier Sky-shrouding Skylark?” Barbosa, well-versed in magical beasts, immediately guessed the little sparrow’s identity.