Thunder-Swift Bird, General-grade pet beast.
Its lightning-like speed was enough to rank it among the top three flying-type pet beasts of the same rank in the Yuhua region.
Its well-developed thigh muscles, agile speed, and gorgeous appearance made many beast tamers yearn for it.
Qiao Sang looked in shock at the Thunder-Swift Bird before her, whose appearance was extremely wretched.
If not for the fact that its general shape remained unchanged, she would hardly believe that this was the king among General-grade flying-type pet beasts.
Qiao Sang's body involuntarily tensed up.
Undoubtedly, a pet beast of this kind, which could not possibly appear on Huangming Mountain, was also worth 5 million.
Qiao Sang silently watched the two pet beasts before her, her face showing no reaction.
Only her tightly clenched fists revealed her nervousness.
One Thunder-Swift Bird, one Stone-Helm Spirit, and one Silver-Tailed Sea Snake.
If these weren't the pet beasts of a wanted criminal, but those of an ordinary beast tamer, she might have even taken a photo as a souvenir.
But now, she felt an unprecedented sense of crisis.
This made her realize that this world was far more dangerous than she had imagined.
From a distance, the Thunder-Swift Bird immediately spotted the person it had never seen before.
It paused for a moment, looking at Fire-Fang Dog's maintained posture, and then a strange excitement welled up in its heart.
Whether it was an illusion or not, Qiao Sang felt that the speed at which the Thunder-Swift Bird limped over had slowed down, as if its injuries had suddenly worsened.
The Thunder-Swift Bird dragged its broken body to the side of the Stone-Helm Spirit, its sharp eyes glancing dissatisfiedly at Fire-Fang Dog.
"Shi Kui!"
"Shi Kui!"
The Stone-Helm Spirit hurriedly stepped forward, recounting everything that had just happened.
"Lei Ji!"
The Thunder-Swift Bird pretended to be angry and flapped its wings, but halfway through the upward motion, it felt a surge of sharp pain.
Out of the corner of its eye, it glimpsed its left wing, which was bald and devoid of feathers, and the anger on its face suddenly became genuine.
"Lei Ji!"
The Thunder-Swift Bird turned and let out a loud cry toward Fire-Fang Dog, making a gesture as if it were about to charge.
"Shi Kui!" Beside it, the Stone-Helm Spirit was frightened and quickly blocked the Thunder-Swift Bird's path.
"Lei Ji! Lei Ji!"
The Thunder-Swift Bird was aggressive, looking absolutely infuriated, yet its claws remained in place, not taking a single step forward.
Qiao Sang watched the tug-of-war between the two pet beasts with a strange expression.
She could tell the Stone-Helm Spirit's worry was real, but why did this Thunder-Swift Bird feel so fake?
If a General-grade Thunder-Swift Bird truly wanted to attack Fire-Fang Dog, it was understandable that it might worry its speed wouldn't be faster than Fire-Fang Dog's bite given its injured leg and wing.
But what about its lightning-type skills? Were they just for show?
Was it afraid that the lightning would also strike its own beast tamer?
Qiao Sang's thoughts raced, and she suddenly shouted, "Ya Bao!"
It had to be said that the time spent together had made Fire-Fang Dog and Qiao Sang increasingly synchronized.
Hearing its beast tamer's voice, Fire-Fang Dog opened its mouth slightly, making a move to bite down on the man's neck.
"Shi Kui!!!"
Seeing this, the Stone-Helm Spirit let out a world-shaking cry of grief.
Meanwhile, the Thunder-Swift Bird stopped its movements and looked toward Fire-Fang Dog with excitement.
The flames on Fire-Fang Dog's sharp teeth stopped just a hair's breadth away from the man's neck.
The Stone-Helm Spirit breathed a huge sigh of relief.
However, the Thunder-Swift Bird looked disappointed, and then continued to scream angrily at Fire-Fang Dog, with the Stone-Helm Spirit quickly blocking the way again.
Looking at the starkly different reactions of the two pet beasts, Qiao Sang understood. This Thunder-Swift Bird appeared angry, but in reality, it wanted to provoke Fire-Fang Dog into actually biting down.
Not every relationship between a pet beast and a beast tamer was like that of family or partners.
There were some beast tamers who purely treated pet beasts as money-making tools, squeezing them relentlessly.
If a low-level beast tamer caused a pet beast to become dissatisfied while their intimacy was insufficient, it was very possible that a temperamental pet beast would rather suffer a backlash than break the contract.
But for high-level beast tamers, the more their brain domain was developed and the more powerful their Beast Codex became, the more impossible it was for a pet beast to break the contract, even if it suffered a backlash.
As long as a beast tamer awakened their Beast Codex to three pages—which was the level of a D-rank beast tamer—the pet beast contracted to them would no longer have the chance to actively terminate the contract.
Unless the pet beast's level was far higher than the beast tamer's, but that was an impossibility.
High-level uncontracted pet beasts were basically all in secret realms.
Their thinking was mature enough that it would be impossible to contract with a human unless they were completely overwhelmed by force.
Only beast tamers who surpassed them in strength could contract them.
But even if one succeeded in contracting such a high-level pet beast through force, they wouldn't necessarily be obedient.
Pet beasts not raised from a young age could easily develop disagreements with their beast tamers for various reasons.
Therefore, even beast tamers who reached the A-rank in this world preferred to contract low-level pet beasts in their initial forms and cultivate them slowly.
But there was always a group of people in the world with different ideas.
They would risk contracting high-level pet beasts to rapidly increase their strength.
Qiao Sang felt that "5 million" was likely this kind of person.
The Thunder-Swift Bird's behavior was clearly different from the Stone-Helm Spirit's.
Assuming the Stone-Helm Spirit was contracted while it was still a low-level pet beast, while the Thunder-Swift Bird was contracted after it had already become a high-level pet beast...
Then everything made sense.
Because the Thunder-Swift Bird could not break the contract even by risking a backlash, and under the influence of the contract, it could not harm its own beast tamer, it wanted to use another's blade to kill, hoping the contract would then be automatically terminated.
After clearing her thoughts, Qiao Sang felt much more relaxed.
She looked up at the two pet beasts still tugging at each other and said, "You two better not start fighting. If you scare me, I'll have Fire-Fang Dog bite your beast tamer's neck off."
The Thunder-Swift Bird paused upon hearing this, then assumed an angry posture and prepared to charge.
"Shi Kui!"
The Stone-Helm Spirit blocked the way once again.
This time, the Thunder-Swift Bird did something else.
It tilted its head back and let out a long cry toward the sky; in an instant, a bolt of thunder descended from the heavens, striking the position where the Stone-Helm Spirit stood.
The Stone-Helm Spirit was startled and quickly vanished its form.
In the next second, the lightning mercilessly struck the ground where the Stone-Helm Spirit had been, leaving a deep pit.
The Stone-Helm Spirit reappeared behind the Thunder-Swift Bird.
"Shi Kui!"
"Shi Kui!"
It angrily scolded the Thunder-Swift Bird.
The master had said not to let the Thunder-Swift Bird release skills randomly on the mountain, as lightning appearing out of nowhere would draw attention to their location.
Furthermore, that hateful human had just finished saying those words; how could the Thunder-Swift Bird still attack?
This was clearly intentional!
The Stone-Helm Spirit only cursed and did not fight back.
The Thunder-Swift Bird's eyes darted around, glancing at Qiao Sang's position, and its wing—the one that still had feathers—swung downward toward her.
A thunderball about 20 centimeters in diameter immediately condensed.
Qiao Sang's eyelid twitched, and she decisively turned and ran toward the man, using him as a human shield.
Seeing this, the Thunder-Swift Bird's mouth twitched, and the direction of the thunderball curved, attacking the Stone-Helm Spirit instead.
"Shi Kui!!"
This time, the change in the thunderball's direction was too sudden; the Stone-Helm Spirit had no preparation and took the hit head-on.
Although the Thunder-Swift Bird's condition was less than one-tenth of its peak, the power of the lightning was real. The stone helm on the Stone-Helm Spirit's head cracked directly.
"Shi Kui!!!"
The Stone-Helm Spirit reached out to touch the crack and then let out a heartbroken, wretched wail.
It looked at the Thunder-Swift Bird with fury, extending its right claw, and a black shadow ball condensed in its hand.
"Shi Kui!"
"Lei Ji!"
Watching the two figures frantically releasing energy in front of her, Qiao Sang couldn't help but sigh.
Pet beasts without a beast tamer really were like a pile of loose sand...
...
PS: Thanks to Luo Yu Mo Ran for the tip for the new month!
Don't mind that this plot is long, it will end tomorrow...
(End of Chapter)