Chapter 65: The Best Use

Xie Sen and Maine picked up Long Teng at the spaceport, and the three of them soon returned to the building where they had stayed overnight. As soon as Long Teng got off the shuttle, anyone who saw him, their eyes subconsciously were drawn to him.

“Where’s the storm trooper from?”

“The military department has a new partner company?” The passers-by next door whispered and speculated.

Long Teng, unaware of how shiny he was, asked Xie Sen with a face full of excitement, “Where is the flying dragon beast? I’m going to find it!”

Xie Sen led him into the living room. “Don’t you want to eat first? You’re going to try to bond later, so you should be at your best.”

Long Teng smiled. “I ate on the airship. I’m in good shape now, and I’m super eager to see the flying dragon beast.”

Xie Sen laughed. “In that case, you come with me. They’re too big, so there is not enough space on the upper level. They’re in the basement.”

There was a mercenary guarding the entrance to the basement. Xie Sen was greeting him when a high-pitched dragon roar suddenly came from behind the door. The sound was so powerful that the ground shook.

Maine subconsciously covered Xie Sen’s ears. Xie Sen smiled at him, and indicated that he was fine.

Long Teng’s eyes lit up. “It senses me. Our synchronization rate must be very high, I can feel it!”

He reached for the door, but was stopped by the mercenary. Xie Sen nodded at the mercenary. “He’s our friend.”

The mercenary took a step to the side to make way.

The voice of the dragon beast behind the door changed from high pitched to low, and heavy with warning. This was the contract beast’s instinctive rejection of its master. The stronger the master, the stronger the rejection reaction.

Long Teng wasn’t nervous, just excitedly pushed open the basement door then scampered inside. “Wow! It looks even cooler up close!”

Xie Sen was following behind him. He was only one step into the basement, when he saw the flying dragon beast that had been lying on the ground suddenly and swiftly fly towards Long Teng. Xie Sen automatically shouted, “Little–”

Before the word ‘dragon’ could emerge, Long Teng was entangled with the whole of the flying dragon beast. The flying dragon beast’s big head was buried in Long Teng’s chest as it rubbed, and the low warning sound turned into a faster, lighter cry.

Long Teng opened his hands, and held its big head in his arms. He laughed out loud, and turned his head to look at Xie Sen. “A’Sen, it likes me a lot!”

Xie Sen looked at his shiny clothes and thought to himself, It’s not you it likes, it’s the shiny glitter on you!

He looked at Long Teng and the flying dragon beast’s intimate appearance with mixed feelings. He secretly thought that the flying dragon beast’s obsession with bright shiny things was really strong.

Not only could looking at Long Teng calm the mood swings brought about by the energy, but it could also restrain its emotions of rejection towards the beast master. It was definitely true love for Long Teng!

And while Long Teng looked silly dressed up like that, the effect was also amazingly useful.

Long Teng and the flying dragon beast hugged for a while. Each was busy giggling, so Xie Sen had remind them, “You should try bonding now!”

Long Teng, “Right.” He smiled at the flying dragon beast. “Make a contract with me. I’m very good.”

The flying dragon beast blinked. Its gaze reluctantly left the bright crystals on his clothes, then it let go of him, backed away and gave him a soft growl.

Long Teng’s eyes were particularly bright, as the whole aura around his body suddenly changed. It was very severe, and he leapt forward. “Don’t be impolite and release your pressure at me! I’ll make you willingly submit!”

The dragon beast lifted up the upper half of its body, and raised its head. Its eyes were fierce, and the atmosphere in the basement instantly stagnated. Xie Sen immediately had a feeling of breathlessness.

Maine took him by the waist, led him to the corner, then held him in his arms. Xie Sen suddenly felt much better.

The corner was the farthest location from Long Teng in the basement. The python beast and the giant armored beast were already cowering there.

It wasn’t long before the python shook its tail, which hit the wall with a snapping sound, while the armored beast scraped against the wall with its pointed muzzle, and scratched a number of marks.

Xie Sen immediately realized that they were affected. They were both originally influenced by the earth energy, and while their mental condition was better than the flying dragon beast’s, they were also in unhealthy states. Now they were affected and emotionally agitated.

He patted the hand Maine had wrapped around his waist, and signaled Maine to let go of him. After Maine let go, he walked between the giant python beast and the giant armored beast, and reached out to touch them at the same time.

The two quickly quieted down under his soothing touch. The python curled up in a ball while the other spread out. The armored beast rubbed his palm, its voice soft and gentle, “I’m sorry, I just couldn’t control it.”

Xie Sen said soothingly, “It’s okay.” The beast lowered its head, and turned shy again.

He looked at the giant armored beast, and couldn’t help but smile. The giant armored beast had done a lot of physical work, but itself was strangely soft, and also very also shy. Its similarity to a dinosaur appearance didn’t match, and that kind of contrast was cute.

Xie Sen was still worried about the situation, so despite the two’s emotions temporarily being stabilized, he kept his hands on them just in case, while he focused his gaze on events straight ahead.

Long Teng and the flying dragon beast were still facing each other, one person and one contract beast, without either giving way.

Xie Sen has seen many beast masters try to confront a contract beast, but the aura released by both sides has never been so strong, nor had anyone lasted as long as Long Teng.

After more than half an hour, Long Teng’s face began to turn white, while the sweat on his forehead kept falling, but he still stood straight. His body didn’t move, while the flying dragon beast only waved its tail slightly.

After another ten minutes, Long Teng finally couldn’t help himself, and his body swayed.

All of a sudden, his body jewelry shone in the light. A flashing, colorful brilliance that dazzled people. Xie Sen closed his eyes.

At the same time, the flying dragon beast’s aura suddenly disappeared. It reflexively closed in on Long Teng. It came halfway then suddenly seemed to realize what it had done and the movement became slightly stiff.

Long Teng’s eyes glowed, and he took a step closer to it. “I win.”

When Xie Sen opened his eyes, he saw the flying dragon beast’s head was held up in mid-air, then it slowly lowered itself and put its head on the rolled-up body, while it looked at Long Teng with big eyes.

Long Teng gave a huge smile, and took off his shirt. On his chest, the awe-inspiring flying dragon beast mark was unobstructedly revealed. He didn’t hesitate to cut a long bloody line on it, and began to perform the bonding ceremony.

As Long Teng’s oath fell, the bonding ceremony ended.

“Ahhhhhh, fantastic!” Long Teng reached out, and hugged the great head of the flying dragon beast, which inclined its head, and stared intently at the diamond bracelet wrapped around his hand.

Xie Sen couldn’t help but laugh. For Long Teng this costume had been a great success. He thought Long Teng would fail, but who knew the flying dragon beast would be distracted because of the jewels’ refraction.

He touched the python and the giant armored beast, then walked up to Long Teng. “Congratulations.”

Long Teng smiled extra brightly. “Thank you, Sen.”

The flying dragon beast swept Xie Sen with its tail. “He is indeed very strong.”

Xie Sen smiled. “Mn.” He asked, “How are you feeling now?”

The flying dragon beast, “Much more stable. It will take a while to recover, but with my beast master around, there will be no problems.”

“Huh…” Long Teng had been next to the flying dragon beast, and heard the flying dragon beast talk. He blinked in amazement. “I can understand it’s speech!”

Xie Sen, “Mn. It’s best not to tell outsiders, otherwise it’s inevitable that someone will have other thoughts about the flying dragon beast.”

Long Teng nodded. “Mn. I won’t tell outsiders.” He rubbed the dragon beast’s phosphor armor. “Since we can communicate…yeah, let me give you a name first. Um…How about Little Black?”

The dragon beast hit him with its head. “That’s bad. It’s not dominating at all.”

Long Teng took a step back, then immediately went back to his original position, and touched it with his hand. “What do you want to be called?”

The flying dragon beast blinked, then made half a sound, “…Called Big Black.”

“Good!” Long Teng answered. “You’re so big, you should be called Big Black. Haha! You’re so smart.”

Black lines appeared on Xie Sen’s forehead. “Are you sure about this name?”

Long Teng and the flying dragon beast nodded at the same time, so Xie Sen reluctantly smiled and said congratulations, and “good name” against his will.

Xie Sen and Maine left the basement to go to dinner, then went back to the bedroom.

On the other side, Sotoko sat in an interrogation room. He had been sitting there for hours, and looked tired.

The interrogator who sat across from him asked again, “Where did you hide the rest of the gold crystals?”

Sotoko was going crazy. He propped himself up on the table with both hands, and said feebly, “I told you, I didn’t hide the ore.”

“Then why did you go to the location where you hid the ore?”

Sotoko, “I…I was just wandering around.”

“Please answer my question seriously. How could it be such a coincidence that you can turn up randomly at the location of the hidden ore?”

Sotoko said, “As you have investigated before, I have no ability for transporting or stealing ore, and I haven’t left the mining area since I arrived.”

“You have the ability in that we didn’t search your spatial storage device, so it doesn’t completely rule out that you don’t have it. It’s likely that you threw your spatial storage pack away to clear suspicions. There are mountains everywhere here, so it’s difficult for us to find it and bring it back as evidence.”

The interrogator paused for a slight beat, “Moreover, you can’t provide a perfect alibi. Just because you didn’t publicly call a flying machine, doesn’t mean you didn’t use one privately.”

Sotoko regretted it immensely. He’d only just come to Mining Planet A, and was in a particularly depressed mood. It was more backward than the most remote district of Brandt Star, with only mining, and no recreational activities.

After he came, he was impatient after being disturbed by some miners’ petty things, so he had always stayed alone in his room or out of sight, and the official business was almost always handled by the staff. That’s why the previous investigation lasted nearly half a month, and it appeared he had plenty of time to transit the ore.

Sotoko rubbed his face. “It’s just your guess. I didn’t hide the ore, I didn’t even think that way. I hate those ores, so why would I hide them?”

“Everyone knows their value. You are very unconvincing when you say that you are clear of suspicion…Did you go to the hiding place today to try to shift the location of the ore?”

“No,” Sotoko took a deep breath. “I didn’t know there was ore there!”

“Then what did you go for?”

Sotoko gritted his teeth, and looked like he was struggling. Once again, he regretted that he had turned his head and left immediately after he saw Maine. If only he’d given a greeting, even if it was a false greeting. Then, he could answer that he had heard that Maine was there, and that they hadn’t seen each other for a long time, so he had gone to look for Maine on purpose.

But he turned his head and left. If he said that now, it would be too fake.

Now he was caught in a dilemma. If he told them his real purpose – to solve the problem of Maine – he could explain the reason for his presence there. However, it would be detrimental to his reputation. After all, the other party was a student who had only just come of age, and hadn’t even gotten his diploma!

But if he didn’t, he had no other convincing reason to explain why he happened to be at the mine.

He clenched his hands into fists, and a trace of hatred flashed in his eyes. He felt that Maine had done it. Otherwise how could the ore just happen to be hidden there? But he couldn’t understand it. Maine arrived at Mining Planet A only a day before, there was no time to make such arrangements.

Could it be that Maine had people on Mining Planet A?

Sotoko’s expression changed. When he finally weighed the two options, he spoke with a shamed expression, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hide it, but the purpose of my visit was a bit difficult to explain.” He said, “I had just come out of the interrogation room when I got a call from my brother. He told me that Maine had killed his son Julos, my own nephew. God knows, I only have this one nephew. I was so overwhelmed with hate, that when I heard Maine had come to Mining Planet A, I immediately searched for his location and then went in my own craft to find him. I wanted to kill him to avenge Julos. I didn’t expect him to be with a flying dragon beast. When I saw the flying dragon beast, I knew I wasn’t capable. At that time I came to my senses. If Maine could appear here, there must be no suspicions about him. My brother must have wrongly blamed him, so I immediately left.”

He said with a bitter laugh, “I was just acting on impulse. I didn’t know that Maine was in a location that happened to have a gold crystal mine.”

The interrogator surveyed his expression, and made the statement, “We will investigate whether what you said is true. You need to stay for interrogation for now.”

Sotoko said, “I will cooperate with you.”

When the interrogator left, he lowered his head, and his face became extremely ugly. If Admiral Cox had just said a few words, he couldn’t have been interrogated like this. He had always been committed to creating a perfect image, and now his image was ruined!

A major who wanted to kill a private citizen because of his personal feelings. When word got out, he knew without hesitation that he would be blamed. He decided that the only way to minimize the damage was to find a way to control public opinion, and shift focus to the love and care he had for his nephew once the story got out.

In any case, he hadn’t acted to harm Maine, an outcome that was far better than the consequences of being convicted of private ore possession to the detriment of the government.

Xie Sen washed up, sat against the bed, and entered the live stream. The contract beasts were sprawled around, and seemed to be talking about something. He looked at the popularity. It was almost 50 million.

[Did you guys see the news? The anchor went to Mining Planet A, and also found a flying dragon beast, a python beast and giant armored beast. Will there be new members in the live broadcast room? So excited!]

[Saw it! That picture is really cool. I also want to let the flying dragon beast take me to fly!]

[Ahhhhh! When will the host draw again? I want to play with the contract beasts. I’m so jealous of the lucky viewers last time.]

[Same envy!]

[The anchor isn’t on Brandt Star, so is the live broadcast controlled by him remotely? Or did the contract beasts open it themselves?]

[According to the observation of the past two days, it must be the giant black leopard beast! Every time the live broadcast goes on, it is at the wall. Before turning off the live broadcast it also walks to the wall, and will lightly roar. All signs indicate that it is turning on and off the broadcast.]

[I think the truth about the front.]

[Today is another day of lemon essence. I also want such a smart contract beast, ah!]

Xie Sen looked at the pop-ups, and couldn’t help but sigh again. The audience was like detectives. Nothing could escape their eyes.

Maine sat down next to him. He turned his head and smiled at Maine, who reached out and wrapped his arms around him, then watched the live stream with him. It didn’t take long for the giant black leopard beast to turn off the live stream. Xie Sen cut to the news page. “There seems to be news about the flying dragon beast on the Starnet already.”

Maine wasn’t surprised. “The senior contract beasts have always been in the spotlight. Many people on Mining Planet A saw it, took pictures and posted them online. The topic will soon be hot.”

Xie Sen clicked on the top story about the flying dragon beast. As soon as he entered, he saw a picture of him and Maine sitting on the back of the black dragon.

[How cool! I can’t believe it’s a flying dragon beast!]

[I know the two people on it. it’s Xie Sen and Maine!]

[Isn’t Xie Sen the anchor of ‘Contract Beasts?’ Now that I think about it, almost all of the senior contract beasts that have appeared recently are related to him. His ability to find contract beasts is too strong, right?]

[Isn’t the point that all senior contract beasts are docile in front of him? Ordinary people, even if they encounter a flying dragon beast, who could sit on its back?]

[Plant Department beast master is also too powerful!]

[I’m more curious about who can successfully bond with the flying dragon beast.]

[No need to think. It’s definitely Long Teng. He and Xie Sen are friends, and according to reliable information, Long Teng has already rushed to Mining Planet A.]

[That’s not necessarily true. The flying dragon beast is strong. Long Teng seems to be not an adult, right? He may not be able to successfully form a contract.]

[Although he is young, he is also a famous fighting demon in the university department. He is super fond of fighting, picked a lot of university fights, and has yet to be defeated.]

[No need to fight. If the contract is successful, the youngest S class beast master will change hands. It will definitely make headlines.]

Xie Sen smiled. It was indeed going to change hands. He remembered very clearly that Long Teng’s birthday was June 1st. In order to fit Long Teng’s character, the author deliberately arranged for Long Teng to be born on Children’s Day, so now in May, Long Teng wasn’t yet eighteen years old.

After they watched the news, Xie Sen and Maine had some intimate exercise then they went to bed with full stomachs.

The next morning, Xie Sen and Maine went downstairs for breakfast, greeted Huo Feng who was eating, heard the loud laughter coming from Long Teng outside, and laughed along with him.

After he ate, Xie Sen walked to the door, and saw that Long Teng was sitting on the back of the flying dragon beast, who was soaring in circles above the door, sometimes high and sometimes low, as it played with Long Teng.

There were many people who were standing around the doorway, and all had their heads tilted in amazement as they watched them.

Huo Feng said, “The youngest S class beast master. Young people nowadays are really more and more powerful.”

Xie Sen laughed. “Mr. Huo, you’re young too.”

Huo Feng smiled. “When are you guys planning to leave?”

Xie Sen thought for a moment. “After lunch. We should be back on Brandt Star just in time to rest. I want to go to the mountains later and pick some plants.”

Huo Feng wondered, “Plants?”

Xie Sen nodded. “I have a friend who is a medical student and likes to grow herbs, also if I come across edible plants, I can bring them back to the Plant Research Institute for research and cultivation.”

Huo Feng said, “If there was an edible plant, it would have been discovered already.”

Xie Sen smiled and didn’t say anything. Usually edible plants were affected by the environment and couldn’t grow, but if they were affected by the earth energy, as long as the energy near the land had residual seeds of golden or yellow edible plants, they were likely to germinate and grow.

The flying dragon beast landed in front of Xie Sen, then touched Xie Sen with its dragon whiskers, which Xie Sen gently squeezed.

Long Teng jumped down from the back of the dragon beast. His clothes had changed, but the gold necklace and diamond bracelets were still on. His entire person still shone as he smiled and greeted, “A’Sen. Maine. Good morning.”

Xie Sen asked, “Have you eaten breakfast?” 

Long Teng nodded.

Xie Sen said, “I’m going out to pick plants. Are you going?”

“Going,” Long Teng smiled. “And will bring it back to A’Jiao. He will be very happy.”

After the discussion, Xie Sen went to ask the giant python and the giant armored beast. Both of them were happy to hear about going into the mountains, and wanted to go with them.

Xie Sen’s trio, together with the three contract beasts, was a good number. However the formation was very large, and the size of the senior contract beasts was really very impactful. As they were about to leave, the investigation team came and asked Maine about the gold crystal mine. Maine replied that he had found it by accident.

The investigator said, “We will request to see your communication records to ensure that you didn’t contact anyone on Mining Planet A before you came here. Just to rule out the suspicion that you went to the mining site to move the ore.”

Maine reached out, and revealed his personal bracelet. He looked apathetic. “We were just looking for the contract beast. You can check my communication records right now.”

The head of the investigation team knew Maine’s life. In his mind, Maine was a free-range bastard. That he could grow up successfully at all was good enough. He shouldn’t have the ability to plot against Sotoko with such a complicated plan.

However they were just following the process of investigation. When he thought of Sotoko’s words, he couldn’t help but look at Maine with some sympathy. “Thank you for cooperating with the work.”

After the investigation team left, Xie Sen’s trio went into the mountain as planned. They first went to the black dragon’s new territory, took some of the gold crystal ore for the black dragon’s heart, and then using that as the center of the circle, they started looking around for plants.

The giant python and the giant armored beast were particularly familiar with the neighborhood and led them to find a lot of plants. The three of them stayed in the mountain for more than two hours, and discovered a rich harvest. Then they put all the plants into their spatial packs and returned.

When they got back to the building they were staying in it was time to eat, so the three of them had lunch with Huo Feng.

Xie Sen asked, “Sotoko just transferred?”

Huo Feng nodded. “He was cleared of suspicion of possessing ore, and now the investigation team is currently re-investigating the ore reduction case.”

Xie Sen wondered, “How did he explain his presence at the ore hiding place?”

“He told the truth,” Huo Feng looked at Maine. “He said he received a phone call from his brother. On impulse, in order to avenge Julos, he went after Maine and intended to kill Maine. But when he saw Maine, there was a flying dragon beast, so he felt he had no chance of winning, sobered up, and went away.”

Maine snorted with disgust in his eyes. “Hypocrite.”

Xie Sen spat, “No chance of winning is true, but coming to his senses is not.”

Huo Feng said, “The military department is very disciplined, and the most taboo is private revenge. The impact of this incident on him will be quite large. The probability is that he will be demoted, and will pay for it in a political trial.”

Maine sneered, and his eyes glittered coldly. “This’s just about right. He’s been pleasing the Cox family just to climb higher. This fall is an appetizer for him.”

They had come to Mining Planet A to recover the energy. The three high-level contract beasts and getting to frame Sotoko were unexpected, but all in all, the trip was very worthwhile. After they chatted for a while, they headed to the spaceport together and prepared to return to Brandt Star.