Chapter 64: The Return Journey

Sotoko’s face went black, as he slammed the binoculars to the ground. His expression was constantly changing, while his heart was full of hatred. He shouldn’t have listened to that old thing, then he wouldn’t have ruined his reputation with Maine. He clenched his hand. He absolutely couldn’t let Maine continue to grow. Now that he had found a flying dragon beast, maybe soon he would find a flying lion beast!

Xie Sen hadn’t expected to see Sotoko so suddenly. He noticed Maine’s hand around his waist subconsciously tightened, and when he thought about Maine and Sotoko, he couldn’t help but worry. He stretched out his left hand, and laid it on the back of Maine’s hand. Maine relaxed slightly, rested his chin on his shoulder, and hid the coldness in his eyes. “I’m fine.”

Xie Sen snickered. “Who said you weren’t fine? I just wanted to touch your hand.” He said to the black dragon, “Slow down. You’ll fall if you go too fast, and the python and the giant armored beast are still down there.”

“Mn, I’ll go down and find them now,” the black dragon said, and flew downward.

When they reached the ground, they saw the python in a coil with its head held defensively and the giant armored beast beside it. Opposite them were Huo Feng and the giant wolf beast.

Maine hugged Xie Sen, and jumped down from the back of the black dragon. Xie Sen looked at Huo Feng suspiciously. “Why are you here?”

He thought Huo Feng was taking Xue Yue to a mountain closer to the mining area. This was a long way from the mining area!

Huo Feng jumped off Xue Yue, and rubbed the side of his neck. “After we entered the mountains, Xue Yue was attracted by the energy and ran here,” he said. His eyes couldn’t help but fall on the black dragon, and he was unable to hide his surprise. “This is a flying dragon beast?”

Xie Sen nodded, “Yes,” he paused. “I hope you can keep the energy a secret.”

Huo Feng said, “Mn. I won’t say anything.”

Xie Sen smiled, and glanced at the craft flying away overhead. “Sotoko cleared?”

Huo Feng nodded. “He was released in the morning. He was in that craft?” Huo Feng wondered aloud, “What is he doing here? Especially since he just arrived and returned.”

Maine sneered, “Probably came to settle things with me, saw the flying dragon beast and thought he had no chance of winning, so he left.”

Huo Feng had heard a lot of rumors about Maine and the Cox family, so he wasn’t surprised to hear him say that. “What are you going to do? He was cleared of suspicion, and will continue to serve as the head of Mining Planet A’s garrison. If he wants to kill you here, it won’t be difficult.”

Maine said, “It’s still a bit tricky to make preparations, but it’s perfect that he came here in person,” he said with a flash of ruthlessness in his eyes. “We found his private stash of gold crystal mines. If he came here, it was probably to move them.”

Huo Feng froze, then quickly understood what he meant and smiled. “In that case, we should inform the investigators as soon as possible. If we’re too slow, the investigation team might leave Mining Planet A first.”

Maine nodded in agreement. He opened his bracelet, asked Huo Feng for the contact information of the investigation office and then sent the message.

Huo Feng looked at Xie Sen. “When I tried to contact you guys earlier, your communicators were showing no signal.”

Xie Sen said, “Maybe we happened to be underground at the time.”

Huo Feng suddenly understood. “Where did you find the gold crystal mine?”

Xie Sen pointed to a peak not far away. “Under that mountain.” When he thought of the underground passageways in all directions, and the large amount of gold ore inside Black Dragon’s new territory, he felt uneasy. He reached out and touched Black Dragon’s phosphor armor, “Is there a way to keep people from finding your new territory?”

The black dragon would give them the ore from the old territory, and they could decide for themselves how to use it, but there were many connecting tunnels. If the investigators went to the old territory to check the gold ore, it would be impossible not to be curious about the other tunnels.

If you followed a tunnel, you would always end up in the black dragon’s new territory, where all the black dragon’s treasures were. If those were taken away and it got angry, there was no one who could control it.

“This is simple. Let Aoshi seal all the roads leading to my new territory. Then no one will find out,” the black dragon said in a relaxed tone.

Xie Sen was surprised. “Can the giant armored beast both make holes, and fill them?”

“Of course. It is just piling up the extra dirt from the holes isn’t it? That’s easy.”  it said in a common sense tone that made Xie Sen feel his intelligence was being questioned. 

He saw the black dragon turn his head, ready to tell the giant armored beast □ □ and to seal the tunnels, when he had a flash of insight and quickly called out to the black dragon, “Wait.”

The black dragon turned its head to look at him. He touched the black dragon’s scales. “Don’t move the new territory. Go to the old territory and leave an opening. When the rest of the roads are sealed, we can make it into a single tunnel. Later there will be people to move the ore. If they find another way, they will certainly be curious and poke around. If you don’t seal the old territory, the workload will also be less.”

He said that then looked at the giant armored beast. “Is it too late to change the tunnels?”

The black dragon said, “There is time. Aoshi is very powerful.” He turned his head, and told the armored beast what Xie Sen wanted. The armored beast replied with a soft bark, then turned its head towards the old territory.

As it walked, it threw back its head and let out a long, “Hoo… Hoo…” sound.

Soon, there were rustling sounds everywhere. Xie Sen looked to the side, and saw many armored beasts had suddenly emerged from the ground, rocks and vegetation. They all ran towards the giant armored beast.

The giant armored beast took its summoned buddies to the black dragon’s old territory, and disappeared from view in no time.

Xie Sen exclaimed, “That’s awesome.”

The black dragon waved its tail proudly, “The underground roads were all dug by Aoshi.”

In less than twenty minutes, the giant armored beast returned. It barked at the black dragon and looked at Xie Sen. Xie Sen raised his hand, and touched its slender pointed muzzle. The giant armored beast’s eyes lit up, and it rubbed its head against his hand, “So comfortable.”

Xie Sen said, “Thank you. Thank you for your hard work.”

The beast buried its head in its chest, a very shy look.

“They’re coming.” Maine said.

Xie Sen looked up and saw a flying machine was traveling above them slowly as it circled around, probably looking for a place to land. Eventually the craft hovered over an adjacent rocky hill, and four males in black uniforms came down the traction ladder in turn, and jumped down to the top of the hill.

The craft didn’t leave, just continued flying around.

After they landed on the top of the mountain, the men quickly descended and proceeded according to the coordinates Maine contacted them from. It didn’t take long to meet up with Xie Sen and the others.

The four of them were stunned when they saw the flying dragon beast, the giant python beast and the giant armored beast. “Oh my god! I’m not blind!”

“It’s actually a flying dragon beast. It’s so cool. It’s the first time I’ve seen a real flying dragon beast.”

After they sighed, their eyes swept quickly over Xie Sen’s trio in amazement then finally landed on Xie Sen. The black dragon beast’s dragon whiskers kept curling around Xie Sen’s wrist.

“I know you, you’re ‘Contract Beasts.’ You’re here. So the live broadcast is really just the contract beasts themselves?”

“Unbelievable!”

Xie Sen smiled at them, without giving a complete reply.

One of the tall blonde men spoke up, and asked, “Were you the ones who contacted the investigation team?”

“It was me,” Maine said. “Sotoko came by just now, but when he saw us there, he left again.”

He didn’t say much, but the statement was clear. Why did Sotoko suddenly come here? And why did he leave when he saw there were people? Because he was wary?

The blond man said, “We met on the way. Tell us what you found.”

Maine said, “Follow me.”

The group moved to the Black Dragon’s old territory. Once inside, Xie Sen was in a trance and thought he was in the wrong place. The original site, which had passageways all around, was now a closed cavern. They were surrounded by walls except for the tunnel where they were walking.

As a result, the light of the gold crystal ore didn’t emit out, and appeared brighter.

The black dragon chirped excitedly. Xie Sen quickly grabbed its whiskers with a twist of his wrist. “Don’t go there.”

If the black dragon went over, it all would be unmasked. If the investigation team saw that the black dragon liked the ore, they would easily link the reduction of the ore to the contract beast. His touch made the black dragon feel extra comfortable, so it lay nicely next to Xie Sen and rubbed against his arm.

The four members of the investigation team took pictures of the surrounding area, to save the initial appearance of the scene, and then used their spatial backpacks to load all the gold crystal ore. The blond man said to Maine, “Thank you for the report. We’ll continue the investigation, and we may need your cooperation later.”

Maine said, “I will cooperate.”

The blond man asked again, “Why are you here?”

Maine looked at the flying dragon beast. Their purpose was self-evident.

The blond man didn’t continue, and or ask how he knew the flying dragon beast was here. The trick to finding contract beasts was a secret that no one wanted to share, otherwise senior contract beasts wouldn’t be so expensive.

The investigation team did things neatly. They took away the gold crystal ore, then asked a few questions before they left.

Once out of the cave, Huo Feng asked, “Xue Yue took me running here. For the return trip, I’ll call the flying machine to pick me up. Do you guys want to go together?”

Xie Sen asked the black dragon, who said, “I want to be next to you.”

Xie Sen pointed to the black dragon and said, “We don’t need a flying machine. It will take us back.”

Xue Yue rubbed Huo Feng, “I’m not tired. I want to go back with them. I also want to talk with them.”

So Xie Sen and Maine sat on the back of the black dragon, which flew overhead, while Xue Yue carried Huo Feng on his back, and ran on the ground along with the giant python and the giant armored beast.

All three of them were fast, and they kept chatting and talking to each other as they traveled.

The black dragon flew to them from time to time to interject a few words, then shortly flew back into the air.

“Xue Yue just said the live broadcast seems to be very interesting!” the black dragon asked excitedly. “It said there are a lot more smart contract beasts out there. Can I find them to play?”

“Of course you can,” Xie Sen laughed. “If you appear in the live stream, the audience will be stunned.”

“I’m going!” the black dragon said immediately.

Xie Sen said, “They’re on Brandt Star. If it’s okay, we can leave tomorrow.”

Xie Sen was a little worried about the size of the three beasts. The ship that brought them here could barely fit them, and they would have very limited space to move around. There was no telling if they could stay still for eight hours.

However, if Long Teng was successful in making a contract, the flying dragon beast would go into a space buckle, then they would occupy much less space. As it was, the group who returned to the base caused a huge stir. After all, the flying dragon beast was very conspicuous in the air.

Not long after, a lot of people gathered around the building where they were staying overnight, and all of them came to see the senior contract beasts. Among them were mining workers and military personnel on leave, all with expressions of both excitement and envy.

“What’s their origin? Only one day here, and they actually found an S class contract beast and two A class contract beasts!”

“I don’t know. The contract beasts in the mountains are wild, and not good with each other. These are actually so docile around them. Incredible.”

“If I had known there were flying dragon beasts in the mountains I would have gone in to look for them. Maybe the flying dragon beast would be mine.”

“You can forget it. If you went, you might not even be able to keep your life.”

Xie Sen looked at the three big guys, and asked Huo Feng, “Is there a bigger spot?”

Huo Feng nodded, “There’s a basement.”

The basement was well lit, as bright as day, and the three were settled in there without any discomfort, since they often lived underground.

The black dragon had been wrapped around Xie Sen’s left wrist with the dragon whiskers. Xie Sen was a little worried. The flying rhinoceros beast immediately felt better after he recovered the energy and made the contract. The black dragon beast was also strongly affected because of the energy, and was always feeling worse.

He stretched out his right hand and touched the phosphor armor on the black dragon’s head. “I’ll call my friend to come over. The sooner the deed is done, the better for you.”

“I don’t want a beast master that is too weak.” The black dragon still said the same thing.

Xie Sen smiled, “The bonding is the result of mutual choice. If you aren’t satisfied, no one can force you.”

The black dragon’s head rested on the ground. “You let him try.”

Xie Sen opened the bracelet and contacted Long Teng. Long Teng quickly got through. His voice was light, “A’Sen, what can I do for you?”

Xie Sen changed the voice communication to video communication, then expanded the virtual screen so Long Teng could see the whole basement scene. “Maine and I are now at Mining Planet A. Do you have time to come over?”

“Ahhhhh!” Long Teng saw the black dragon head in a glance. He jumped up from the sofa, his face pressed against the virtual screen and his eyes were extremely bright. He was so excited that he couldn’t speak for a moment.

“A’Teng, what are you mad about?” A husky voice was heard, followed by a gentle voice. “A’Yu, be gentle with your son. He must have encountered something, otherwise A’Teng wouldn’t have screamed like that.”

Xie Sen, amused and helpless, asked directly, “A’Teng, do you have a way to get a pass to Mining Planet A? If not, I’ll find a way to bring him back tomorrow.”

“Yes!” Long Teng returned to his senses, his eyes glued to the black dragon. “It’s just perfect! I’ll get there as soon as I can! I’ll be there today!” he said. He was still staring at the screen as he shouted at the top of his lungs, “Father, I’m going to Mining Planet A. Right away.”

“Brat, you’re talking about the wind and rain. Going there to move rocks? No arrangement!”

A handsome and elegant man appeared behind Long Teng, and put his hand on Long Teng’s shoulder. His voice was gentle. “A’Teng, don’t stand so close to the screen. What do you want to do on Mining Planet A?”

“Dad,” Long Teng twisted his head, and revealed the screen. 

Xie Sen heard that, and immediately knew the man’s identity. He hurriedly greeted, “Hello, Uncle.”

An Ming saw the black dragon next to Xie Sen, froze, then replied, “Hello.” He turned his head and said, “Long Yu. Quickly arrange for someone to get A’Teng to Mining Planet A.”

Long Yu’s low voice was tinged with dissatisfaction, “A’Ming, you called me by my full name for this brat!” As his words fell, he came over.

Xie Sen sighed at the Long Teng family’s good genes, and greeted again, “Hello Uncle.”

Long Yu looked at the black dragon. His eyes gleamed. After a while his gaze moved to Xie Sen. “Hello.” The next moment he disappeared from the screen, and Xie Sen heard him ordering people to prepare the ship and the permit.

“A’Teng, do you have the S class contract beast space buckle with you?” An Ming asked.

Long Teng nodded, “Yes.”

Xie Sen smiled. It seemed Long Teng’s dad had a lot of confidence in Long Teng!

Long Teng stared at the black dragon for a while before he turned to the remaining two contract beasts, then he couldn’t help saying, “So cool! Sen is awesome! I want to go out on an adventure, but my father forbids me to go alone. I’ve still snuck out a few times without being noticed.”

Xie Sen gave him a chagrined look, and couldn’t help but laugh. The book started with Long Teng going out on a trip. He had snuck out, and had a lot of scary things happen because he was a newbie. He nodded. “Okay, I’ll tell you next time. If you’re available, we can go together.”

Long Teng raised a bright smile as he stared at the black dragon’s forehead for a while. “What is that?”

Xie Sen didn’t hide it, and told him about the black dragon’s situation. Long Teng had seen the whole process of the red energy recovery, and instantly understood the black dragon’s problem. He turned his head to An Ming. “Dad, where is the shiny thing?”

“I’ll get it ready.”

The speed of Long Yu’s men was fast. In twenty minutes Long Teng was personally delivered to the spaceport by Long Yu and An Ming to depart on the ship.

It was lunchtime, so Xie Sen stayed with the black dragon for a while, and then went to lunch with Maine. The black dragon lay quietly on the ground. It was staring at the shiny ore on its forehead, so it was in a calm mood.

After lunch, Xie Sen first went to check on the contract beasts to make sure they were okay, then went back to his bedroom, took a shower, and prepared to take a nap. Maine took him in his arms, and stroked his fingers on his face. He grabbed Maine’s hand. “Stop it. Last night was enough. Let me rest for a while, and we’ll go check on the black dragon when I wake up.”

“Don’t worry. They’re very capable. No one can hurt them.” Maine lowered his head, kissed him on the forehead, and hugged him tightly. “You sleep.”

Xie Sen closed his eyes, then opened them again a short while later to see that Maine was still looking at him.

Maine was silent for a moment, and shook his head. “Nothing.”

Xie Sen’s thoughts turned. “Did you think of something because you saw Sotoko?”

Maine held him tightly in his arms, and said in a low voice, “You’re not him…You can’t be him. You wouldn’t lie to me.”

Xie Sen hugged him back, a little uneasy in his heart. Not everything he said to Maine was the truth, some of the things about where he came from and who he was were still hidden.

“I like you,” he said. “And I want to be with you all the time. Just remember that.”

Maine eased his hold slightly, and kissed him softly on the lips. “Yes. I’ll always remember that. Go to sleep.”

Xie Sen was awakened by a shout. His eyes snapped open and he sat up. Maine tapped him on the shoulder. “Take it easy. Let’s go out and see.”

Xie Sen steadied himself, and went out with Maine. They met Huo Feng at the staircase.

“Mr. Huo,” a mercenary who was standing at the door, his face tense, shouted, “Someone got mixed up in there, and was dragged out by the python.”

Xie Sen rushed to the door, and saw the python beast with a man wrapped in its tail, as it waved him in the air. The man who was trapped in its coils let out a mournful yell, the same sound that had just woken him up.

Tuan Tuan stepped on the head of the giant python beast and was bouncing and jumping, as it constantly chirped and chirped. It had a cheerleader’s look.

There were a lot of people gathered around the door to watch, many of them with frightened faces.

Xie Sen hurriedly shouted, “Python!”

The python turned its head to look at Xie Sen. Tuan Tuan flew to Xie Sen’s shoulder, and landed. It chirped lightly.

Xie Sen approached the python. Someone shouted, “Don’t go over there! It’s dangerous.”

Xie Sen ignored that. Then, the onlookers didn’t get the dangerous scene they thought would happen.

The python’s head came up to Xie Sen, while its tail continued to fling the entangled man around. The man’s shrieks grew weaker and weaker.

Xie Sen touched the python’s head. “Let him go. He may die if you continue.”

The man fell to the ground with weak legs, then scrambled to his feet and ran outside, where he was grabbed by the mercenaries Huo Feng had hired and was thrown to the floor.

The python balled itself up. Its footprint was instantly reduced. Xie Sen asked, “What happened?”

The python said, “He drugged himself, and tried to do something bad!”

Xie Sen frowned and asked, “Are you guys okay?”

“Yes. Aoshi’s sense of smell is very sensitive. As soon as he sprayed the drug, Aoshi smelled it.”

Xie Sen set aside his anxiety, and whispered the python’s words to Maine.

Maine walked up to the frightened man. He stepped on the man’s ankle without ceremony, bent down, grabbed his collar, and swiftly stripped him clean.

Maine ripped off the spatial pack necklace around his neck, then opened his bracelet and operated it for a moment. He unlocked the spatial pack and took out its contents. A 500ml can of spray and an A class contract beast spatial buckle.

“Give it back to me!” The man, his upper body still bare, tried to snatch his things back.

Maine unceremoniously kicked him away, and opened the spray towards him. “Want to use it on a contract beast? Why don’t you try how it feels yourself?”

“No!!!” The man hurriedly covered his face. “I’ll die!”

Xie Sen said, “Why did you think about using this on the contract beasts if they feel like they are going to die?”

“They’ll just pass out. They’ll be fine,” The man hurriedly said.

Maine’s fingers were holding the space buckle. “Want to put them in a coma, and take them away in the space buckle?”

The man shrank into a ball, and didn’t dare to reply. However, the facts were in front of them, and he couldn’t refute them.

Xie Sen didn’t expect someone to use this method to get the contract beasts, and was very angry. “The contract beasts are our companions, and are protected by law. How can you do this?”

At that moment, the military arrived. “I heard that a contract beast hurt someone?” He pointed at the shrunken man, then looked at the python. “What happened?”

Xie Sen quickly explained the situation. The military asked the people standing around, then pulled up the surveillance inside the building to make sure the man tried to steal the contract beasts and took the man away.

Xie Sen returned to the hall. He still couldn’t help being angry, and at the same time couldn’t help but worry. “Are there many people who treat contract beasts like that?”

Maine, “Not many. This is the tactic of contract beast peddlers. It’s the most dangerous practice. Contract beasts are highly capable, and it’s easy for something to go wrong. Although they won’t actively attack humans, if they are being attacked, they won’t hesitate to resist. Those who are found out have almost no chance of survival.”

Xie Sen touched the python curled up at his side. “Is it because of us that the man wasn’t killed?”

“Yes,” the python said gently.

Xie Sen said, “That’s smart.”

He went to the basement to see how the black dragon and the giant armored beast were doing. The two were lying on the ground as they very leisurely communicated in low voices.

Xie Sen touched their phosphor armor one by one and praised the armored beast. It rubbed against his hand, then buried its head in its chest, still very shy.

Long Teng arrived at Mining Planet A at 7:00 p.m. He kept pushing the pilot along the way, so that it took an hour less than Xie Sen’s travel time.

Xie Sen and Maine personally went to the spaceport to pick him up. When they saw Long Teng coming out of the exit, the corner of Xie Sen’s mouth twitched. This was too flash!

Long Teng had big shiny gold chains hanging around his neck. Both arms were wrapped with diamond-threaded bracelets that went from his wrists to his elbows, while his clothes were cartoon-patterned with a layer of jewels sewn on the surface, and flowed as he walked around.

“What are you…? Afraid that people don’t know that your family is rich?” Xie Sen couldn’t help but throw out.

Long Teng rubbed the back of his head, then raised a shiny smile, revealing eight bright white teeth. “Didn’t you say that dragon beasts like glitter? I wanted to wear silver reflective glasses, but Dad wouldn’t let me wear them because he was afraid I’d fall.”

Xie Sen thought to himself, I’m glad you didn’t wear them. Having noticed all the gazes around them, he grabbed Long Teng’s arm, and walked outside, “Let’s go.”