Celestial Beast Taming

With Zhong Yi’s permission, the Soul-Controlling Flower didn’t fully manifest its body as it had last time.

Instead, it merely extended a few slender filaments, like the tentacles of a sea anemone, and drained the two Horned Demon carcasses clean of their Life and Soul Energy.

The moment the Soul-Controlling Flower finished feeding, Zhong Yi saw Hong Ji staring at him with expectant eyes.

At that moment, Zhong Yi felt less like a Guardian Beast Master and more like a zookeeper.

"Go ahead. The rest is all yours."

Upon hearing this, Hong Ji gleefully darted toward the space between the two Horned Demon carcasses.

This time, instead of opening two large mouths in the palms of her hands, four tongue-shaped tentacles, each over five meters long, sprouted from the outsides of her fair, slender thighs.

These tentacles weren’t pieced together from various corpses. They were composed of incredibly soft, flexible muscle and were highly elastic.

The Horned Demons’ mangled flesh was spread across the ground like sludge, and these feeding tentacles were perfect for scraping it all up, leaving not a single trace behind.

Hong Ji was serious when it came to eating; she would always go to the trouble of specializing her body to ensure not a single scrap of food went to waste.

If Hong Ji were reincarnated as a human in Zhong Yi’s previous world, she would have been the kid in kindergarten who won the most gold stars for always cleaning her plate.

Zhong Ling’s expression hadn’t changed at the sight of the two gore-splattered Horned Demons, but it went slack with shock after she saw how Hong Ji ate.

Clearly, Zhong Ling needed some time to get used to Hong Ji’s voracious appetite!

Zhong Yi thought, ’If anyone else saw Hong Ji eating like this, they would immediately brand her as something Bizarre.’

As she scooped up the minced flesh from the ground, Hong Ji’s hand gently caressed her waist.

The Bizarre Blood Thread Puppet, which Hong Ji had absorbed, materialized at her waist.

Countless flexible threads unfurled from the Blood Thread Puppet. These nimble red threads wrapped around Hong Ji’s feeding tendrils, siphoning the blood and blood vessels out of the minced flesh.

After being absorbed, this Bizarre creature seemed to be both a part of Hong Ji’s body and a weapon she meticulously cared for.

Finally, the four five-meter-long tendrils nimbly wrapped around the two Horned Demon skeletons, signaling the end of Hong Ji’s meal.

The soul, flesh, bones, and even the faintest trace of the two Horned Demons’ auras had vanished completely in less than three minutes.

It was as if they had never existed in this Secret Realm at all!

While Zhong Yi and the others were fighting in the Horned Demon Secret Realm, a piece of news sent shockwaves through all the major powers of Starlight City’s Upper City District!

Starlight City had sharply distinct seasons, yet its Central District was home to a vast lake that remained unchanged by their passing.

During the day, the lake’s water turned an inky black, with faint motes of starlight twinkling within its depths, as if the night sky and its countless stars had been sealed inside.

At night, the water would freeze and emit a soft radiance from the inside out.

The light emanating from the lake’s surface at night was bright enough to illuminate more than half of the Central District.

In the center of this singularly beautiful lake was Lake Heart Island, upon which stood a tall tower almost completely covered in small, bright yellow flowers.

The tower’s peak had long since pierced the clouds, and on the eaves of each level sat four enormous, beast-headed bronze censers.

Thin wisps of smoke drifted from the censers from time to time, merging with the mist and seeming to make the clouds above even thicker.

At this moment, two people were playing a game of chess inside the tower.

One of them, a woman with short crimson hair, was pouting in thought as she used a spoon to scoop out the flesh of a basin-sized watermelon in front of her.

Taking advantage of a moment when the man across from her was distracted, she suddenly swept the nearly one hundred pieces on the board into a jumbled mess.

"Wen Tao, every time we play Demon Chess, your luck is just too good! I can never beat you!"

"From now on, find someone else to play with you. I’m done!"

The woman with the short crimson hair shoveled a large spoonful of watermelon into her mouth, sending juice flying toward her cheeks and the two rose-colored, candy-like pendants on her ears.

But before the juice could touch her cheeks or the rose-colored pendants, it vanished into thin air, as if it had evaporated.

Hearing this, the man across from her, dressed in a long blue robe, gave a resigned smile.

"Zhuo, if I recall correctly, you were the one who asked me to play Demon Chess with you."

"Didn’t you say you wanted to hone your skills so you could win your pride back from those two little ones when Xu Zhi brings them back?"

Lin Zhuo paused, suddenly remembering that she had, in fact, been the one to suggest the game of Demon Chess.

She guiltily took a couple more bites of watermelon and quickly changed the subject.

"Xiaochen and Juanjuan are over twenty years old. Why do you still call them ’little ones’?"

"Speaking of which, it’s been a while since a new Celestial Destiny Seeker has appeared in Starlight City."

"Bai Chen’s potential is rated S, and Juanjuan barely scrapes by with an S+ rating. Among Celestial Destiny Seekers with S+ potential, she’s at the bottom of the pack."

"I heard that the other cities have produced a combined total of four geniuses rated at the Double S Level."

As he listened, the man’s expression remained as placid as still water.

Aside from his earlier flicker of resignation, her words caused not another ripple in his composure.

"Those two Celestial Destiny Seekers from Kyoto with Double S potential both seem to be from the Fang Family."

"The Fang Family suffered immense losses back then due to that calamitous Sixth Level Secret Realm. The emergence of these two with Double S Level potential can be seen as a form of compensation for the family."

"Zhuo, there’s no need to worry so much about whether or not new Celestial Destiny Seekers will emerge. That’s not something we can decide."

"Our duty is to be ready to protect them when one does appear, and ensure they can grow safely."

Hearing this, the woman with the short crimson hair stabbed her spoon into the half-eaten watermelon.

"Hey, Wen Tao!"

"Because each of us Celestial Destiny Seekers comprehends different Rules through our Order Beasts, none of us can act as a mentor to a newcomer."

"But when the next Celestial Destiny Seeker appears, it’s my turn to be the Guardian. You’re not up until the one after that."

"If you try to cut in line, I’ll stew all those Dinghai Lion Turtles you’re raising and feed the soup to the next ’little one’ who becomes a Celestial Destiny Seeker."

"I hear turtle soup is very nourishing, you know!"

Wen Tao couldn’t help but cough softly as he began gathering up the scattered Demon Chess pieces.

In truth, Wen Tao had entertained such a thought. After all, there was no telling when the next Celestial Destiny Seeker would appear, let alone the one after that.

However, knowing Lin Zhuo, if he really did use some trick to cut in line, his Dinghai Lion Turtles would probably be boiled into a pot of foul-tasting soup long before they had a chance to advance from Fantasy Level to Mythical Level.

After all, every single person qualified to enter the Star Frost Tower who had ever tasted Lin Zhuo’s cooking had ended up dry-heaving and running home with an upset stomach.

If Lin Zhuo herself didn’t eat it with such relish, everyone would have suspected her of deliberate poisoning.