Chapter 3897 — The Danger Arrives

"Leader, don't underestimate me. Where you two go, I go," Xiao Che declared at once.

Qiao Hongcai started at those words, and his face shifted with emotion. He waved his hands hastily. "Leader, Xiao Che, this is my own business. If I throw my own life away, that's only what I deserve, but dragging the two of you into it—that's just wrong. If anything happens, I'll never know peace for the rest of my life. You two had better leave, quickly!"

Wei Zhao clapped him once on the back and laughed. "All on your own, what do you figure your chances of walking out alive are? Enough. No more nonsense, no more wasting time—get on with it!"

Qiao Hongcai looked deeply at the two of them, and wasting no more words, spun about and lunged at the cub. The adult Ghost-Eyed Golden Eagle might return at any moment; if he had not succeeded in binding it before then, everything would have been for nothing.

To bind a spirit beast required two indispensable conditions. First, one needed a spirit-pet talisman of the appropriate grade. Second, the captor had to wound and subdue the beast with his own hands and obtain a drop of its blood.

This Ghost-Eyed Golden Eagle cub was currently around the early Heaven rank in strength, yet if it truly came to a fight, even a mid-Heaven rank expert might not be able to beat it. And it was a bird of prey, possessed of a natural advantage in the air.

Qiao Hongcai was, after all, an early-Foundation Establishment expert. With his strength, dealing with this cub was naturally more than enough—provided it did not flee. Otherwise, once it took to the sky, he and Wei Zhao and the rest would be utterly helpless.

Fortunately, though the cub had been shrieking furiously all this while, it showed no inclination to take off and flee. It simply crouched in its nest, eyes fixed on Wei Zhao and the others. Even when Qiao Hongcai lunged at it, it did not fly off outright, but instead whirled about with savage ferocity, slashing wildly with its not-yet-fully-grown talons.

Even Qiao Hongcai, an early-Foundation Establishment expert, came away with several gashes deep enough to show bone. That alone showed how ferocious its fighting power was.

"Leader, could it be this cub still doesn't know how to fly? Otherwise, why hasn't it run off yet?" Xiao Che, watching from the sidelines, could not help but wonder aloud.

The mightier the spirit beast, the longer its growth period. A Ghost-Eyed Golden Eagle like this one might already look considerable in size, and its strength might already be at the early Heaven rank, but it was still a good while from adulthood. At this stage, being unable to fly was perfectly normal.

Wei Zhao said thoughtfully, "Maybe. But the Ghost-Eyed Golden Eagle is not only powerful—it's exceedingly cunning and treacherous. I can't shake the feeling this cub is up to no good."

"No way. You mean this little thing isn't running because it's deliberately trying to hold us here, waiting for the adult to come back?" Xiao Che's face looked as though he had seen a ghost.

"Nothing's impossible. Spirit beasts at this level of strength are already highly intelligent; their scheming and trickery are no less than a human's. Never underestimate them," Wei Zhao said with feeling.

In the last newcomer trial, whether it was the Ghost-Eyed Golden Eagle that had nearly killed him or the Nine-Tailed Cloud-Piercing Leopard he had slain, the cunning they displayed had been enough to send a chill down one's spine. Wei Zhao's suspicions about the cub before him were not without reason.

Leaving aside everything else, for the whole time just now the cub had been crying out—there might well be some link of sense between it and its parents, and the adult Ghost-Eyed Golden Eagle could already be on its way back.

As the two talked, Qiao Hongcai had already succeeded in subduing the cub, at the cost of a dozen savage claw wounds all over his body. Time was short, after all; every extra second here was another second of danger. Measured against that, paying only this much in injuries was already a bargain.

He mixed the cub's blood with his own, smeared it onto the spirit-pet talisman, and pressed the talisman to the cub's forehead. Success or failure in this gamble all came down to this single act.

In theory, a low-grade spirit-pet talisman could bind a spirit beast up to the peak Heaven rank. But that was only in theory. The higher the beast's grade, the greater the difficulty of binding and the lower the success rate—an unchanging truth since ancient times.

A low-grade spirit-pet talisman used on a grade-less or Yellow-rank spirit beast was all but certain to succeed. But once it came to the Heaven rank, the success rate had already dropped below forty percent. However well one prepared beforehand, whether it ultimately worked still came down to luck.

The reason a spirit-pet talisman could bind a spirit beast was that its effect was essentially that of powerful brainwashing. Once the master-binding succeeded, a mental link was established between pet and master, making the beast wholly obedient.

Others—including high-grade spirit beasts—might be able to kill it, but none could make it submit, and even the hierarchy of intimidation between spirit beasts would lose its effect.

Such was the advantage of the spirit-pet talisman, but the drawback was that it placed no small mental burden on the master. After all, in brainwashing the pet, the master himself suffered the side effects, and this mental link persisted long-term. With two or three more spirit pets, the master's mind would likely collapse.

Beyond that, a spirit pet bound by a talisman would to some degree have its spirit nature erased, so its true strength was a notch below that of a wild spirit beast.

Wei Zhao and Xiao Che waited anxiously for a full half-incense stick's time before they heard Qiao Hongcai exhale a long, foul breath. "Done."

By then the cub had fallen completely unconscious, but both Wei Zhao and Xiao Che could plainly sense that the wild, untamable ferocity it had carried was gone, replaced by a measure of the docility peculiar to a spirit pet.

It was a bit of a shame, but also unavoidable. To gain something, one must lose something.

"Here it comes!" Just as the three were about to withdraw in haste, Wei Zhao's eyelid suddenly twitched, and at once the sky seemed to darken as a massive shadow fell over their heads.

In the end, they could not escape this calamity. The adult Ghost-Eyed Golden Eagle had returned!

Feeling the crushing might of this sovereign of the skies, Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai could not help but freeze. A single casual beat of its wings snapped countless mighty trees in midair—what a terrifying display of power!

"You two go, now! I'll take the cub—split up, move!" Wei Zhao, in his alarm, rapped out his orders.

With the cub at his side, he could draw the Golden Eagle's attention, and Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai would not be in too much danger. As for himself, with the great Ghost Thing watching over him, his life was naturally not a concern.

Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai were both startled. To touch the cub at a moment like this was sheer recklessness—indeed, by Qiao Hongcai's own reckoning as the cub's master, there was no need to bother with the cub at all now; the three of them should simply flee for their lives. (To be continued...)

(.)RU