Chapter 19: Qin Family’s Young Lady, Qin Menger
Princess Jin Rou was going to stay for a period of time in Nightmare Palace. Chu Mu, as a personal retinue, only had to follow her around when she traveled. Because of this, he didn’t have to stay in Nightmare Palace during this period of time. After obtaining permission, he didn’t stay in Nightmare Palace any longer and directly headed towards Gangluo City.
“Young master Chu, you just gained fame in Nightmare Palace. Why didn’t you strike while the iron was hot, and instead choose to hastily leave Nightmare Palace for Luo Region?” asked Ting Yu who was riding the Storm Devil Colt with Chu Mu.
Chu Mu glanced at Ting Yu and cracked a smile as he said: “Ting Yu, you’re still calling me young master Chu even now?”
Ting Yu was stunned, not expecting Chu Mu to suddenly say this.
In reality, when Ting Yu first heard Chu Mu’s name, she suddenly thought of the Chu Mu three years ago. Only, she didn’t actually expect that Chu Mu, who had caused such a large commotion on Cyan Nightmare Island, would have been thrown onto Prisoner Island before powerfully appearing in Nightmare Palace after three years.
Over these past few days, Ting Yu actually had wished for Chu Mu to notice her. After all, they had shared the same room for nearly half a year, three years ago. Yet, Ting Yu discovered that Chu Mu seemed to have forgotten about her.
Ting Yu would only naturally feel disappointed that Chu Mu had forgotten her. Nonetheless, she knew that the present Chu Mu was completely different; he had become a dazzling star in Nightmare Palace, while she was just a servant girl.
“I… young master Chu… I thought that you had forgotten me…” A trace of a blush appeared on Ting Yu’s cheek. Clearly, she was rather flustered. Yet she still didn’t dare to address Chu Mu directly by his name.
“In the three years surviving on Prisoner Island, a lot of things and memories became blurry because of the mindless killing. I cannot instantly recall those things.” said Chu Mu.
“Eh… eh… you’re hurrying to return to Luo Region because…” for a moment Ting Yu didn’t know what to say, but she instantly brought up another question.
“Luo Region’s Wang Luo City is my home. I’ve been away for four years already…” said Chu Mu.
Ting Yu cast a furtive glance at Chu Mu before retracting her gaze. However, she could read the waves of great changes from his gaze.
“You currently have such a high status in Nightmare palace, so you can bring honor back to your family. Your family definitely will feel proud because of you.” said Ting Yu.
“Perhaps.” Chu Mu nodded his head and gazed at the purple mountains in the distance.
Honor wasn’t important to Chu Mu. What was truly important was being able to see his family that he had been separated from for four years, and seeing that rather changed middle-aged man.
The Luo Region was a piece of beautiful and fertile land. Here, there were plains as far as one could see, meandering unbroken mountain ranges, and vastly dense forests…
In this world, the strength of a region was ultimately determined by the distribution of soul pets.
In a sense, Luo Region’s complicated terrain created the most perfect living conditions for various soul pets. One could see groups of Servant Rank soul pets running around in many places. On the other hand, one could also see the traces of commander rank soul pets in certain deserted places. Even in some ancient villages or mountain strongholds, there would be a few ancient totems passing on precious information of monarch rank soul pets.
Chu Mu enjoyed freedom and even longed for it. The environment of Luo Region accurately portrayed Chu Mu’s heart. Therefore, after entering Luo Region, Chu Mu’s mood had been rather cheerful. His usual cold demeanor had even slightly changed as he chatted with Ting Yu throughout the journey.
In truth, Chu Mu wasn’t a purely cold young man. Especially with the influence of that old man who was both his father and friend, Chu Mu still had an unrestrained, free, and impervious heart.
“Young master Chu, there’s still three days before we reach Gangluo City. Why don’t we rest in this city tonight and continue on our route tomorrow. The Storm Devil Colt also has to rest.” said Ting Yu.
“Sure, that’s fine.” Chu Mu nodded his head. He controlled the Storm Devil Colt to enter the approximately fifth rank city.
The Storm Devil Colt was a commander rank soul pet that was primarily used as a means of travel. To a majority of soul pet trainers, this was practically wasting resources recklessly.
Therefore, when Chu Mu and Ting Yu sped through the main street of the city while riding the Storm Devil Colt, a wave of sighs went off. Those people riding servant rank soul pets stamped their feet, especially when they saw that the people riding the Storm Devil Colt were a young man and woman. These older soul pet trainers could only silently recall their frightened servant rank soul pets…
After entering the city, Chu Mu and Ting Yu immediately went to Soul Pet Palace and put the Storm Devil Colt that hadn’t signed a soul pact in Soul Pet Palace.
Soul Pet Palace was one of the most powerful powers in the soul pet domain. Different from Nightmare Palace and other powers, Soul Pet Palace ostensibly was open to any soul pet trainer. They were involved in buying soul pets, keeping soul pets, renting soul pets, and selling soul pets etcetera. Essentially, they were involved in anything concerning business transactions of soul pets.
Although Soul Pet Palace wasn’t the strongest faction in this world, it was the faction that covered the most of this world and had the most members.
There were numerous cities in this world, but it seemed that every fifth rank city and above had a Soul Pet Palace in the center of the city. Soul Pet Palace would provide soul pet trainers all kinds of needs.
“Young master, can’t you still have one more soul pet?” asked Ting Yu.
“Yes.” Chu Mu nodded his head.
In truth, Chu Mu still had two more soul pet vacancies. After the White Nightmare devoured the fifth phase ninth stage Blue Nightmare, the White Nightmare had oddly sent a bit of the soul pet feedback to Chu Mu, surprisingly helping him break through from the sixth remembrance Spirit Teacher realm into the seventh remembrance Spirit Teacher realm.
The seventh remembrance signified that Chu Mu had entered the high remembrance state, and the third soul could now hold three soul pets.
Chu Mu’s third soul currently only had a soul pact with the Night Thunder Dream Beast, so there were still two vacancies. He was debating whether there was a need to go to a few places with strong soul pets to capture a new soul pet and increase his strength.
While fighting, it was practically impossible for soul pet trainers to summon and substitute through all their soul pets, because summoning soul pets consumed an extremely large amount of soul power. However, with more soul pets, one could occupy the advantage when it came to attribute and species superiority.
“Young master Chu probably has the ideal type of soul pet in mind. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be so slow in picking.” said Ting Yu.
“That’s not the case. Perhaps my standards are just too high.” said Chu Mu.
Regarding new soul pets, Chu Mu simply thought of the unhatched Hidden Dragon egg in his spatial ring.
The Hidden Dragon egg had remained extremely still in Chu Mu’s spatial ring. If it wasn’t for the occasional sound that came from it, it would have been exactly like a solid rock.
It was very probable that the Empyrean Cyan Hidden Dragon was a soul pet that surpassed the monarch rank. As for the Hidden Dragon egg that the Empyrean Cyan Hidden Dragon had rendered, it was at least a monarch rank sub-posterity Hidden Dragon.
Monarch ranks weren’t that suitable for a Spirit teacher stage person to sign a soul pact with, so for Chu Mu, these two soul pet vacancies wouldn’t belong to the small hidden dragon. He could only limit the species rank to the commander rank.
In reality, species rank was not entirely indicative of a soul pets value. If a low species rank soul pet was raised well and its phase and stage was raised, it wasn’t impossible for it to fight against a higher species rank soul pet.
There were a plethora of different soul pets in Soul Pet Palace. However, their quality was shoddy, and Chu Mu definitely did not have any interest in those soul pets. If he were to actually buy a soul pet, Chu Mu wouldn’t have to do it in this small city. Nightmare City was a tenth rank city, so as long as Chu Mu had enough funds, he could buy as abnormal of a soul pet as he wanted.
After leaving Soul Pet Palace, Chu Mu and Ting Yu walked along the bustling street searching for a place to stay.
“Young master Chu, what’s the matter? Is that carriage very special?” Ting Yu stopped in her tracks and found that Chu Mu was staring at a carriage slowly trodding along. Thus she inquisitively asked him a question.
“The carriage’s symbol is very familiar. It seems to belong to a big family in Gangluo City. However, it’s been too long and I can’t remember.” explained Chu Mu.
Currently, Chu Mu only profoundly remembered his family’s as well as the Yang Family’s symbol. As for Gangluo City’s two remaining big families, the Zhou Family and Qin Family, Chu Mu didn’t really remember them.
“Just now when we entered Soul Pet Palace, this carriage was to the side and inside I saw a very beautiful woman. The servant beside her addressed her as young lady Qin.” said Ting Yu.
“Eh, a Qin Family woman.” Chu Mu suddenly remembered a bit. No wonder he felt it was rather familiar.
……
Chu Family’s relation with the Qin Family was relatively harmonious. In the past, Chu Mu would often go to the Qin Family to walk around, and people from the Qin Family would frequently visit the Chu Family…
“Young master Chu, do you recognize her?” asked Ting Yu.
Chu Mu shook his head and said: “In the past, I would have recognized her, but I’m afraid right now it’s a bit hard to recognize people.”
Chu Mu didn’t pay the Qin Family woman any heed and continued to walk with Ting Yu. They found a luxurious place to stay and walked in.
Coincidentally, that Qin Family carriage was here as well. When Chu Mu and Ting Yu walked in, they saw that beautiful Qin Family woman had followed them in.
“Uncle Chu is already very worried. If we can help then we should help.” As the woman walked to the second floor, she whispered in a very soft voice to the middle-aged man next to her.
The woman’s voice was extremely soft, but Chu Mu had already cultivated a very perceptive hearing ability on Prisoner Island, so he could hear the quiet conversation.
“Young lady, it’s not that I, Old Teng, don’t want to help the Chu Family. It’s just that the person who is going to intercept the Chu Family’s caravan is the expert invited by the Yang Family, Li Nan. This fellow is someone I can deal with, but the cost will be exceptionally hefty. Moreover, the Yang Family will definitely know that our Qin Family interfered…” the family servant who called himself Old Teng whispered back.
“Then we have to watch the Chu Family’s caravan be intercepted in front of our eyes? The Yang Family’s people truly went too far. The state of the Chu Family has already declined a lot in the past few years, yet they still use this sort of underhanded method. Must they exterminate them like this?” anxiously said the Qin Family woman.
“Young Lady, our Qin Family has secretly helped the Chu Family a lot. However, you also know that the Yang Family is currently the largest faction in Gangluo City, followed by the Zhou Family. These two families are a nest of rats and snakes, ostensibly dominating the entirety of Gangluo City. Our Qin Family’s situation isn’t that optimistic either… we can only silently help them. If we were to openly oppose the Yang Family like this, it would be very hard to do… “ said the family servant Old Teng.
As he heard the two people converse, Chu Mu’s eyebrows creased. He intentionally walked a few steps closer, hoping to hear all the details of their conversation.
“You, don’t get near the young lady!” just as Chu Mu walked closer, a few family servants instantly exposed malicious expressions.
Seeing that someone was approaching, the Qin Family’s young lady and Old Teng immediately stopped their discussion. They turned around and walked towards the resting place the woman servant was pointing to.
“Is what the two of you were talking about regarding Chu Family’s caravan being intercepted by thieves true?” Chu Mu ignored the few family servants and spoke as he stared at the Qin Family young lady.
When Chu Mu said this, the Qin Family young lady and Old Teng creased their eyebrows.
“Could it be that you don’t know that eavesdropping on other people’s conversations is a most rude offense!” Old Teng’s face instantly turned dark and he turned around to glare at Chu Mu.
Chu Mu no longer understood what was rude and offensive. If it was in the past, the moment Old Teng used such a glare, Chu Mu would have instantly killed him. However, Chu Mu currently had learned to control himself. After all, he was no longer living on Prison Island. There was no need to kill someone the moment he saw them…
“I only want to know if this matter is true or not.” Chu Mu repeated his words once more.
“Brat, do I have to discipline you in place of your elders for your rude manners!” Old Teng’s expression turned even more sour. The Qin Family helping the Chu Family had always been a secret. Old Teng didn’t want any outsider knowing. If it were to reach the Yang Family’s ears, their Qin Family would be in trouble.
“Old Teng, leave it. Perhaps they unintentionally heard us.” The Qin Family woman seemed rather gentle and implied that she didn’t want Old Teng to conflict with Chu Mu.
After resolving the conflict, the Qin Family woman didn’t stay longer and slowly walked to the second floor.
How could Chu Mu not care about the Chu Family’s matters. Furthermore, it seemed that this caravan was extremely important to his family.
“Wait, are you Qin Menger?” Chu Mu immediately asked.
The Qin Family woman turned her head and suspiciously looked at Chu Mu. She didn’t seem to understand why this young man, who she had never met before, knew her name.
“Young lady, you’ve been cultivating at Luo Region Sect for a few years. Although you don’t often come back, perhaps you have a bit of reputation. It’s not strange for strangers to recognize you. Why don’t you let me deal with this nonsense spouting brat.” explained Old Teng.
“Young miss, please don’t misunderstand. My family’s young master has abnormal hearing abilities. He unintentionally overheard your conversation. My young master and the Chu Family have a bit of a relationship. If the Chu Family has trouble, he only wants to help. I hope that you understand this matter…” Ting Yu immediately stepped forth and spoke in place of Chu Mu.
Chu Mu glanced at Ting Yu. He had been on Prison Island for too long. Chu Mu still hadn’t fully recovered from that intense way of life and wasn’t that good at interacting with others anymore.