“Senior!” Zan Zichen froze when he caught sight of the mark on his forehead, then glanced at Yao Si with disbelief. “S-senior, you… contracted him?”

“Contracted?” Yao Si stilled. What the f*ck does that mean?

Before he could reply, the crowd started to shout with horror-filled faces.

“Contracted… It really is the contractor mark! She contracted Senior Qin.”

“She can even contract a cultivator?!”

“Demon girl… No, she is from the demonic clan. It has to be them!”

“Hurry, let’s go! I don’t want to become a contracted demonic beast, I don’t want to!”

A series of squeals pierced the air. As the mental strength controlling them was gradually released, they hurriedly escaped on their flying swords without a second glance back. The area was cleared in a matter of seconds.

“Wait a moment!” Yao Si was full of confusion. “What exactly is happening? Isn’t someone going to explain it to me?”

“Senior, don’t you know?” Zan Zichen stilled.

“What don’t I know?”

“That person…”—he pointed to the weird guy as articulated each word carefully—”is now yours!”

“…”

What?

–

After Zan Zichen’s explanation, Yao Si finally understood what about the contracts. It was a specialty on the planet of Shadows which consisted of all sorts of demonic beasts. They made useful ingredients for crafting medicine and weapons, and they spawned quickly so there was always a large amount of them.

The indigenous tribes would often keep a few of the demonic beasts to use either as ingredients to make weapons or as support during a duel. However, most demonic beasts were hard to tame and would devour their owners at times. Hence, cultivators came up with a controlling method—the owner and slave contract.

When a demonic beast was in a weak state, the owner would send its consciousness into the demonic beast’s mind to read its thoughts to prepare for the attack and to prevent the demonic beast from having any rebellious intentions.

Moreover, contracted beasts were not able to disobey. The moment they thought of rebellion, the mark left during the contract would automatically destroy their consciousness.

Yao Si’s previous actions clearly matched the conditions above.

“Once a contract has been established, the beast’s life will be in its owner’s hands,” Zan Zichen concluded. “So… he is officially yours.”

“Could you… use other terms?” What do you mean by yours? That’s such a misleading term!  “Isn’t it a contract between a demonic beast and a person? Both of us are humans!”

“In theory, the contract can only work on demonic beasts…” Zan Zichen was equally puzzled.

“Then what happened to me?” Yao Si was starting to develop a headache. Was it really not her mahjong tile on the weird guy’s head?

“This… I’m not sure either.” Zan Zichen shook his head. “Demonic beasts and human cultivators are from completely different races. Cultivators have larger consciousness than beasts so cultivators are able to contract them during at their weakened state. Both of you are humans, I don’t…”

“Wait a moment!” Yao Si’s heart sank. Different race? They really weren’t from the same race…

Was it because of the difference in their race? Was her luck that bad?!

“You can kill me, but I won’t let you humiliate me!” The leader lifted his head, glaring at her with a murderous look, but somehow, he was rooted to the ground. “I will never be your contracted beast, so kill me if you dare!” The marking on his forehead shone as he lay down his threat.

You don’t want to be my contracted beast? I don’t want a burden like you either!

Yao Si rolled her eyes. “Seeking death? I’ll grant your wish!” She reached for the sword on the ground, tossing it toward him while taking the time to soothe her mental strength. “Hurry! I’m in a rush.”

“You-you…” He stilled slightly before straightening up. He glanced over at the sword, but couldn’t seem to reach out for it. “Are you trying to avoid your responsibility after contracting me?”

“…”  What the f*ck? Hey, don’t make it seem like I’m being unfaithful! 

“Heh, let me tell you, if you don’t remove this blasted contract, I’ll follow you to the end of the world! Forever and ever, till death do us part!”

“…” Who wants to be with you forever? Where is this absurd conversion going?  “I don’t know how to remove this f*cking contract!” She retrieved her mental strength.

“I don’t care. As long as the contract is valid, I will be by your side.” He caressed his forehead, smirking coldly. “Heh, if you hadn’t coveted my physical body, why would I, the eldest disciple of the Heavenly Cultivation Sect, give myself to you?”

Give yourself… 

“Don’t sprout rubbish!” Who coveted your physical body? Is this how you use this term? You failed your language test, right?! 

“You are stuck with me so don’t you dare leave me behind.”

“…” This is getting weirder by the second…  “Wait a minute, we have to set this straight! You were the one who stole our soul-devouring beast’s organ, so we had to take action.”  Don’t you deserve what happened?

“Who said I stole it?” He grew increasingly more panicky, bolting upright with a face full of anger. “We are a reputed and honorable sect, so there is no way we would do such a dishonorable thing. I have been chasing the soul-devouring beast for a few hours and had lured it to the cloud swallowing beast herd to expend it’s energy.

“While chasing after the cloud swallowing beasts, a large chunk of its energy had been used up. We had laid down traps about fifty meters away to capture the beast, but all those plans were foiled by you.”

Yao Si stilled, glancing at the distance There was indeed a glow that came from magic there. Was it really from them?

“That’s not right! That was just a small beast and it wasn’t injured at all.” The demonic beast they had defeated was filled with life and energy which was completely unlike in the description. Besides, the man was the one chasing the beast.

“It can be!” he replied firmly. “We have been eyeing it for the past few hours so how could it be wrong?” He headed over to the defeated soul-devouring beast and directed an attack at its body. “Besides, we have already marked it with magic, so we can just check it now…”

He paused mid-sentence, focusing on the motionless beast. He stilled then, testing it several more times, but the beast remained the same without any marking.

His face paled at rapid speed as he muttered with horror, “Why… why is there another one. Where is the one we were chasing then?”

“How do I know?” Yao Si rolled her eyes.

Heh, wasn’t it clear? They had been going after the wrong beast. The soul-devouring beast they had injured previously wasn’t the same as the one that she had just defeated, so the entire situation was a misunderstanding. Yet the price the man had to pay was far to heavy—he became a beast that could be summoned at will.

“Is this a beast you deliberately released in order to get me?” he asked.

“Get lost!”

–

Yao Si had gained a contractor that sprouted rubbish out of nowhere… What sort of experience is this?!  She felt a murderous urge.

“Since its a misunderstanding, I’ll let bygones be bygones, but you’ll have to bear responsibility for this contract.”

“…” Responsibility? How did I wrong you?! 

“Even though your cultivation isn’t high and you don’t have the looks, this is after all the first time I… Ah! I can only accept my fate.”

“…” First time you what? Clarify yourself! 

“Dragging this out won’t be ideal, besides, I’m not a demonic beast. This has to be resolved or I won’t have a choice but to follow you for the rest of your life.”

“…” Who wants to be followed by you for the rest of her life?!

“I’m after all a living being, after doing… you need to provide me with an explanation.”

“…” What explanation do I need to give you? 

“Oh right, my name is Qin Changle. I should be a few years older than you so you can either call me Changle or Brother Qin.”

“…” Brother… Qin?

“Right, I’m after all the eldest disciple of the Heavenly Cultivation Sect, even if I now have to give myself to such a woman. It’s…”

“Shut up!” Yao Si finally lost it and interrupted his monologue.

Can the chatterbox just shut up? Back when they were still fighting, why didn’t she realize how absurd his mouth was?! Why would he call himself Qin Changle when he was clearly Chatterbox Qin! If she had known, she would have never snatched the beast from him.

How was he a beast that could be summoned at will? He was more like a nagging machine—every sentence he sprouted was enough to craft a movie scene!

Yao Si was starting to miss home…

After they got to know each other along the way and some physical interactions, Yao Si finally managed to shut the man up. She wasn’t able to come up with a solution regarding what to do with him, so she had no choice but to bring the burden along with her.

An originally two player game had become a family… ay, three player game. Yao Si assumed that this would be the last of such absurdities, but she had clearly underestimated their luck. Zan Zichen was no doubt a jinx, for the amount of bad luck he yielded was astounding!

They met with a demonic beast while picking level five mystical grass.

They met with another demonic beast while picking level four mystical grass!

They met with yet another demonic beast while picking level three mystical grass…

They could even meet a demonic beast… doing his business while picking the tiny grass along the road.

“…” Yao Si.

“…” Zan Zichen.

“…” Qin Zhangle.

One guy was a chatterbox and the other a jinx! Yao Si was starting to become suspicious about her life. What kind of people was she meeting?

“Demon girl… did you just intrude on the nest of a demon beast?” Chatterbox Qin asked while panting heavily.

Yao Si glanced at the person beside her. “Eh, Jinx… Zan Zichen, is this why Shi Fang sect leader schemed to kick you out?”

In just a short span of time, they had managed to see more species of demonic beasts than there were planets in the celestial realm. There were small level one beasts and big ones of level eight and nine; there wasn’t any they hadn’t encountered. At the start they would be cautious at the sight of level five beasts, but by then, they could calmly defeat level nine beasts without a moment’s hesitation.

The constant fights continued to strengthen Yao Si’s mental strength. At the start, she had to struggle just to produce a single mahjong tile, but by then, she could tell which tile came out with her eyes closed. It wouldn’t be long before she could produce a whole set at once.

Her improvement had to be credited to Zan Zichen’s bad luck. While thinking about that, she was starting to pity Shi Fang Sect. How did that child manage to survive till such age?