The Charm of Soul Pets

Ye Qingzi finally finished the upper quality seventh rank wood crystal. 

When Chu Mu went to Yang Feng Ridge to train, he wasn’t able to find any seventh rank wood crystals in the wild. Instead, he collected many high ranking materials and brought them back to Ye Qingzi. 

Ye Qingzi had already concocted a lower ranking spirit item for the Devil Tree Battle Soldier, but it had only stirred the bottleneck, not actually breaking through. 

This time, Ye Qingzi concocted a higher ranking spirit item. If things went as expected, the Devil Tree Battle Soldier stepped into the high emperor rank.

“Brother, those Black Fairy Butterflies are a bit strange.” Ning Maner said to Chu Mu.    

“How is it strange?” Chu Mu knew that Ning Maner could communicate with any wild soul pet. Presumably, she could do the same with the Black Fairy Butterfly army. 

"They ignored me.” pouted Ning Maner.

“Who allowed you to go outside the city to play?” Chu Mu glared at Ning Maner.

“You’re being mean to me again. I’m telling big sister.” Ning Maner turned and ran away. 

How would Chu Mu let her run. Like he was grabbing a small rabbit, he grabbed her back. 

“What else happened?” Chu Mu couldn’t be bothered to speak more about that so he asked a different question. 

“Nothing. None of those Black Fairy Butterflies paid attention to me. I didn’t dare go far outside the city either before I had Second and Third White take me back.” said Ning Maner. 

“Go and play then.” Chu Mu waved his hand and sunk into thought.

“Oh also, this city seems to be hiding something underground. I’ve most recently felt a very dense spirit aura seep out from the ground.” said Ning Maner. 

“Ok.” Chu Mu ignored this. After all, with how flourishing Xiang Rong City was, there was definitely some special spirit source in the ground propping the city up.

“Hmm, outside is so noisy.” Ning Maner lifted her skirt and ran to the courtyard walls. She stared through the vine intersected wall on the outside. 

There weren’t many people recently on the streets, making the big street outside seem colder. 

A few guards wearing city guard uniforms flew in front of each house on their beast type soul pet as they threw city orders in front of the doors.

This was always how people here received city orders. Looking at the contents, everyone’s face changed and they hastily closed their doors as they began shouting in panic.

A moment later, a city order arrived outside Chu Mu’s courtyard. Ning Maner was already waiting there. She picked it up and ran back to Chu Mu.

“Big brother, something big is happening.” said Ning Maner.

Looking at the excited Ning Maner, Chu Mu good naturedly let out a laugh. Did this girl want the whole world to descend into chaos? 

Chu Mu opened the city order. It required all residents to prepare enough food to stay underground for a long period. 

Xiang Rong City’s ground was much sturdier than normal rock. Special underground cellars were built to ensure the safety of citizens when disasters or wars broke out. Indeed, most of these underground cellars were not right underneath the surface but rather very deep in the ground. 

The city order required all spirit soldier and citizens to go underground. People above the spirit soldier rank, if they were willing, could voluntarily enlist in the city guard fight. 

Chu Mu raised his head and looked at the western side of the city.

Indeed, the black clouds to the west were growing extremely thick, transforming into an incomparably enormous shadow that covered the outside of Xiang Rong City. 

“Big brother, look. Those Black Fairy Butterflies are all gathering to the west.” Ning Maner pointed to the black horizon.

Indeed, just as she said, the scene resembled a black cloud that was covering the sun on the western side of the city.

“Let’s go and look. Go and call big sister over.” Chu Mu chanted an incantation and summoned Mo Xie. 

Having Second and Fourth White follow, Chu Mu brought Ye Qingzi and Ning Maner towards the western part of the city.

    ……

Upon reaching the western side, Chu Mu discovered that there were not many people left walking outside the western part of the city. It looked like it had been abandoned. 

Moreover, up the towering city walls on either side, plan world soul pets covered the area with countless elemental world soul pets were lined up on top of the city walls. Demon beast world soul pets were on the outside of the wall...

With such densely packed soul pets, at some point the western city had become fully prepared, forming an enormous army.

Plant world soul pets were the dominant type for Xiang Rong City’s soul pets. As far as Chu Mu could see, vine type, flower type and wood type creatures dominated the majority. Moreover, the higher ranking ones were these three types of soul pets. 

Vine types were comprised of mainly the bramble species, heavenly vine and vine species. Their vines had covered the thick city wall in countless layers. From the amount that was compressed, it was possible for them to create a vine forest at the top. 

Wood types were comprised of mainly the devil tree species, demon wood species and wood eccentric species. The devil tree species’ wood type was rather average while, being the most mainstream wood type soul pet, it was also the strongest defender, attacker, restrictor and had the highest life force.

As far as Chu Mu could see, at least 70% of the wood type soul pets under the city wall were from the devil tree species. Indeed, there were Devil Tree Servants, Devil Tree Battle Soldiers, Ancient Devil Trees, Thousand Eyed Devil Trees and Natural Devil Trees. The Natural Devil Trees, being emperor rank creatures, stood out among the devil trees and their towering bodies made others incredibly envious. 

There wasn’t a large group of flower type creatures. They could be seen behind the wood type army draped in wooden armor. The flower types took on many forms and colors and their thin branches resembled the arms and waists of women that were faintly waving around. 

The city wall had been covered by countless vines as well as the surroundings. Additional plant towers had been created by flower branches and vines. 

At the very top of the plant tower a woman dressed in a simple but elegant robe quietly stood there, radiating magnificence. 

She stared at the Black Fair Butterfly army that were like soldiers under the city. Her expression was calm.

The Black Fairy Butterfly army covered the heavens and earth, transforming the western side of the city into darkness. Several people felt chills when they saw this darkness and were nowhere near as aloof as Flower Empress Master Xia Zhixian. 

Not far away from the city wall, Chu Mu was looking ahead as well.

The view in front of him had been completely swallowed in blackness. Xiang Rong City’s western side was a dark night that was so cold it made people afraid. The other side of the city, by contrast, was a daytime covered in sunlight. This distinct contrast created a shocking visual scene, and Chu Mu couldn’t help but sucking in air. 

Chu Mu had already witnessed the pure white beauty of Snow City.

Now he was witnessing a pure black scene. Only this time, it wasn’t a natural scenery. Instead, it was formed solely by Black Fairy Butterflies. At this distance, each Fairy Butterfly was like a small black speck in the horizon. 

However, it was these black specks that carried dense darkness and death auras. They were so concentrated they were like an abyss of darkness where no speck of light shined. 

“Big brother, will there be a great battle?” 

“Probably.” nodded Chu Mu.

“Is that Flower Empress Master Xia Zhixian? Her aura is completely different than last time.” Ye QIngzi stared at the Flower Empress Master Xia Zhixian who was standing on the isolated plant tower. 

According to rumors, while Flower Empress Master Xia Zhixian’s fighting strength was not necessarily stronger than the Fourth Hero, Mo Ling, her powerful support abilities could multiply the strength of a soul pe trainer. Moreover, it could even multiply the strength several times. She was someone who stood at the pinnacle of supportive abilities. 

Among female soul pet trainers, the war goddess, Mo Qingyi, was ranked first, while the Flower Empress Master, Xia Zhixian, was ranked second. In reality, however, if Xia Zhixian stood at a position that was suited for support types, her effect would not be any less than Mu Qingyi. 

Ye Qingzi herself was a support type soul pet trainer. Xia Zhixian’s realm was several times higher than her’s. If it wasn’t because she stood with Soul Alliance, Ye Qingzi probably would have admired and respected this most powerful support type soul pet trainer in humanity’s realm.

“Chu Mu, what’s her strength like? Can you deal with her?” subconsciously asked Ye Qingzi.

Ye Qingzi only had an approximate understanding of absolute experts’ strengths. She didn’t have a solid grasp of exactly how strong the Eight Desolations and Four Heroes were.

“If we were to fight one on one, I could deal with her. But if she’s supporting someone else, it’s hard to say.” said Chu Mu.

“A while ago I learned about the strength ranking of female soul pet trainers from Xiao Li.” pouted Ning Maner. 

Xiao Li was Li Guang’s granddaughter. Her age was similar to Ning Maner, and the two were very close. 

“Oh? Who is on it and what is the ranking like?” Ye Qingzi was very interested. 

As a woman herself and a soul pet trainer, Ye Qingzi naturally had her ambitions. At the very least, she felt that Flower Empress Master Xia Zhixian’s calm state of mind when facing the Black Fairy Butterfly army was much higher than her own. 

“First place is Heavenly Concubine Mu Qingyi, known as the War Goddess. Second place is her, Flower Hero Xia Zhixian, known as Flower Empress Master. Third place is Soul Pet Palace’s Wei Ying, known as Madam Fu. Fourth place is Mu Qingyi’s subordinate, Dancing Desolation Fang Wu, known as Blood Woman. Fifth place is Soul Palace’s Majesty Liu Bing Lan, known as Ice Beauty. Sixth place is Heavenly Concubine Mu Qingyi’s subordinate, Heart Absolute Tie Xin, known as Iron Woman. Seventh place is… I forget.” said Ning Maner. 

“Second place should be the Empress Concubine. Her strength is probably higher than the Flower Empress Master, but she just hasn’t shown it.” said Chu Mu in a low voice.