Eternal Beast Taming Family

"Someone's starting to cause trouble, so be careful," Chu Jingyu said.

He looked at the ink threads above his head; it seemed this thing wasn't as intelligent as he'd imagined.

As long as you don't stray too far from the main group, the ink thread won't interfere with what you do.

Xu Yinghui and another old man nodded. They were also unable to sleep, so they lit a bonfire and carefully watched their surroundings.

After a day's journey, their group from Heyu Town had long since dispersed, leaving only Chu Jingyu and his two companions here.

Several dozen meters away, several other unfamiliar contract masters were also resting. The commotion caused by Chu Jingyu and his group had also woken them up.

Having witnessed a high-ranking contract master die at Chu Jingyu's hands, they looked at Chu Jingyu with wariness and unconsciously kept their distance from him.

Chu Jingyu didn't care about the distance from those around him. Apart from the hundred or so Spirit Rank Contract Masters flying in the sky, Chu Jingyu was not someone these Contract Masters running on the ground could easily provoke.

Just like that fellow contract master who possessed the uncanny ability to become invisible in the dark, he died under his source beast's pincers after only a brief exchange.

Chu Jingyu thought that no one should bother him for a while.

The human forces that had spread out their battle lines continued intermittently throughout the night, causing chaos among the alien and mortal level contract masters. Some were injured, and some died, becoming part of the ink canvas in the sky.

The high-level contract masters did not appear, and seemed unconcerned about the deaths of these low-level contract masters, even as the riots broke out.

Their plan to secretly create a disturbance and incite a mutiny within the ranks, thereby causing the troops to turn back, ultimately failed.

As dawn broke, the silk thread above their heads fell in front of them again, bending forward in one direction. Even though they hadn't rested well, everyone had to quickly get up and set off.

It wasn't until noon that all the humans emerged from the forest, basking in the blinding sun.

Before them appeared a narrow chasm, with the howling wind carrying flakes of snow slowly penetrating from the depths of the canyon.

At this moment, the "Heart of the Earth Vein" of the "Golden Armor Jade Eye Beast" played its due role, allowing Chu Jingyu to learn the name of this place through the conversations of others.

"Frosty Valley" is an unknown place rarely visited by the Paper Hawk County people.

Even if some humans manage to reach this place, very few are able to successfully return to the realm.

As Chu Jingyu looked at the crack in the canyon in front of him, a sense of familiarity arose in his heart. It was extremely similar to the canyon behind the village chief's house in Chenjia Village.

The only difference was that this canyon was much deeper, with towering stone walls on both sides that seemed to stretch endlessly. The biting cold wind made even these contract masters shiver, despite standing under the blazing sun.

However, the owner of the ink canvas in the sky, the Huo family patriarch, did not want everyone to linger at the entrance of the canyon for too long.

The ink-colored threads cascaded down in front of everyone, bending again, all pointing in one direction: the depths of the canyon.

Many low-level contract masters did not want to go in, but they had no choice but to go.

With a sharp scream, another blob of ink shot from the crowd toward the sky, and the group silently began to move forward into the canyon.

As Chu Jingyu mingled with the crowd and walked forward, he reached out and used the scattered ice crystals that seemed to fall from nowhere to grind them into dust with his fingers. Despite his strength as a different-level contract master, he couldn't even grind the ice shards into dust.

Continue forward and enter the canyon completely. The canyon is not dark, because there are many ice crystals that emit a faint glow on the walls and the ground.

The pale light shone on people's faces and bodies, making them feel like evil spirits walking in an icy hell.

The sound of wings flapping through the air rang out, followed by a familiar bird call.

Birds that filled the entire canyon swooped down from the walls on both sides, their sharp, urgent cries like demonic noises that made one's head ache.

And then came the spikes formed from countless ice crystals, and the "Golden Armor Jade Eye Beast" covered Chu Jingyu, Xu Yinghui, and another old man with a layer of gold and white armor.

The ground beneath their feet had inexplicably turned into ice, rendering the "Golden Sand" ability of the "Golden Armor Jade-Eyed Beast" unusable.

Fortunately, Chu Jingyu had made preparations in advance. He quickly took out a large clump of sand from his brocade bag and scattered it into the air. Before it hit the ground, it turned into golden gravel.

Then, controlled by the "Golden Armor Jade Eye Beast," it floated upwards, not only shattering the ice crystals that pierced down, but also attacking the "Cold Howling Bird" whose wings carried a cold wind from behind.

Upon seeing the "Cold-Calling Strange Bird," Chu Jingyu was stunned for a moment, then became even more certain that the ice valley in Chenjia Village and the canyon here were inextricably linked.

It might be the valley that the Liu family built in imitation of this "Frosty Howling Ice Valley". Perhaps for some reason, they did not dispose of the canyon in Chenjia Village before the family moved away, and the source beasts they raised there were not taken away either.

Many guesses flashed through Chu Jingyu's mind before he turned his gaze back to the battlefield before him.

This was the first time they had faced an attack from extraterrestrial source beasts since leaving Paper Hawk County. They hadn't encountered a single source beast in the Moonlit Forest.

Fortunately, the "Cold-Calling Strange Birds" attacking from above are not of high level, mostly lower-level aliens and higher-level mortals, which Chu Jingyu can handle with ease.

However, some of the others were in bad shape, and some even died directly from the ice crystal spikes.

Some had their flesh scraped away by the cold wind beneath the wings of the "Cold-Weather Bird" behind the ice crystals, or had their chests pierced by the bird's tough claws or beak.

Not all contract masters can escape unscathed from an attack. If it weren't for the two old men behind Chu Jingyu, who had dealt with the "Cold-Calling Strange Birds" in this area, the two old men might not have been able to withstand the attack either.

These "strange birds" arrived suddenly and retreated just as quickly. The attack lasted for about two or three minutes before the birds flew back into the sky and disappeared.

Only a faint smell of blood lingered in the air.

Whether it was the corpse of the "Cold-Calling Strange Bird" on the ground, or the corpses of human contractors and contracted source beasts, they all turned into clumps of ink and flew into the air.

Chu Jingyu felt a chill in his heart. This scene reminded him of the moment when the Liu family patriarch's Origin Beast advanced to the Domain Rank. All they needed was the soul of the Yuzhen human race.

This time it's flesh and blood. Could it be that the Huo family is doing the same thing as the Liu family back then, trying to forcibly create a Domain Rank to maintain the Huo family's thousand-year glory?

The ink-colored threads continued to guide the way into the depths of the canyon. Despite their reluctance, the group had no choice but to continue forward, their faint sobs drowned out by the cold wind blowing from the depths of the valley.

They have no idea what kind of abyss awaits them ahead.

Some random thoughts about the setting:

"Source Device: 1. Each Source Device has the ability to awaken spirits."

2. Apart from spirits, each source artifact has its own attribute tendency. For example, the Shi family's attribute tendency is stone and earth, and they have related abilities, while the Liu family's attribute tendency is ice and snow.

3. Apart from Chu Mu, the other source artifacts do not possess independent consciousness and need to be controlled by the family head. They may have hidden abilities that cannot be developed.

"Currently existing realms: Mortal Rank, Extraordinary Rank, Spirit Rank, Domain Rank, Evolution Rank, King Rank..."

"Source Beast Aptitude: Inferior, Common (Mortal), 1/10, Extraordinary, Perfect, Peerless, Legendary, Mythical."

"The hierarchy of aristocratic families is as follows: Ninth Rank: Humble Family; Eighth Rank: Wealthy Family; Seventh Rank: Elite Family; Sixth Rank: Noble Family; Fifth Rank: Royal Family..."

"The number of Source Beast Contracts is one for the Mortal Rank, two for the Extraordinary Rank, and there is no fixed number of Contracts for each Rank above the Spirit Rank. It is related to the amount of spiritual power required for the Contract Master and the Source Beast Contract."

"The more source beasts that occupy a large portion of spiritual power, the fewer source beasts a contractor can contract."