Cooperation

Inside a secret chamber of Spirit Hall's main hall.

"Your Holiness, the Holy Son, seventeen nobles of the Star Luo Empire have jointly submitted a petition demanding a complete ban on Contract Arrays throughout the empire." Ghost Douluo reported on one knee.

"What about the Heaven Dou side?" Solomon casually flipped through an ancient book.

"Xue Ye's stance is ambiguous, but the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan have already secretly thrown their support behind the noble faction."

Bibi Dong sneered. "Those traditional sects fear change most of all. The advantages they rely on through bloodline inheritance will vanish completely."

Solomon closed the book, a glint of gold flashing through his eyes. "Send the order. Increase the promotion efforts in the border villages. Also, have those commoner spirit masters who have already signed contracts form self-defense squads." He rose to his feet, his smile as mild as ever. "Since the nobles have chosen confrontation, let them see what the Power of the People truly is."

That very night, Spirit Hall secretly dispatched three hundred Contractual Mentors into the gray zone between the two great empires.

It was where noble rule was weakest, and where new ideas found the easiest soil to take root.

Meanwhile, within the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Ning Fengzhi was speaking privately with Sword Douluo Chen Xin.

"Fengzhi, are we really going to stand with the nobles?" Chen Xin frowned. "Spirit Hall may have ambitions with this move, but it truly benefits the development of the Spirit Master world."

Ning Fengzhi sighed. "Uncle Sword, how could I not know that? But Spirit Hall's ambitions are far greater than that. Once the noble system collapses, the sects will be next."

He looked out the window. "I cannot allow the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's century-old foundation to be destroyed overnight. Change is indeed a good thing, but Spirit Hall's approach is too radical. The continent is about to change."

After another pause, his gaze softened. "Besides, we are not entirely siding with the noble faction. Let Rongrong sign a contract as well. It can be considered a gesture of goodwill toward Spirit Hall."

Chen Xin was stunned for a moment before slowly nodding in agreement.

Several hundred miles away, the younger generation of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan could no longer restrain themselves.

Yu Tianheng secretly brought several clan members to the nearest Spirit Hall branch to study Contract Arrays.

"Clan Head, should we stop them?" an elder asked anxiously.

Yu Yuanzhen was silent for a long time before slowly shaking his head. "No. Young people have their own ideas. Isn't that a good thing too?"

He sighed again, seeming to age more than ten years in an instant. He missed his son who had vanished without a trace, but even so, he forced himself not to say anything.

He merely turned and left in silence.

A few days later, Solomon planned to make a trip to the Star Dou Forest.

This time, he brought Xiao Wu with him.

Xiao Wu had recently been cultivating alongside Raphael and had long since contracted a Soul Beast Pokemon.

It was a Soft Bone Rabbit that was over a thousand years old!

That rabbit was chubby and round, and it looked delicious.

This big fat rabbit did not possess many skills, and Solomon had no idea why Xiao Wu wanted to contract him.

Perhaps it was friendship between members of the same species?

Whenever Solomon saw Xiao Wu, he instinctively thought of Tang San.

Little Scumbag's first soul ring was still a Mandala Snake. What a damned sense of destiny.

Still, wasn't that a good thing?

Little Scumbag's first soul ring occupied a Soul Beast Pokemon slot, which meant that even if he contracted Soul Beast Pokemon later, he could only contract eight of them. He was born able to contract one fewer Soul Beast Pokemon than everyone else.

How was that not bad luck?

"Brother Solomon, are we going to the Star Dou Forest today?" Xiao Wu skipped over and naturally hooked her arm through Solomon's.

The girl carried a unique fragrance, and merely smelling it made one feel refreshed.

That big rabbit followed closely at Xiao Wu's side, with half a carrot still clamped in his mouth.

He looked even fatter than he had at the beginning.

"Isn't Xiao Ba a little fatter than he was a few months ago?" Xiao Ba was naturally the name of the Soft Bone Rabbit Xiao Wu had contracted.

At once, Xiao Wu refused to accept that. Planting her hands on her hips, she said righteously, "How is Bunny fat? Bunny is just, um, built a little sturdier!"

"Yes, that's right. Sturdier."

The big fat rabbit beside her also stood upright in imitation, planted his paws on his hips, and nodded with a solemn, serious expression.

As he moved, the fat on his body bounced up and down, making it clear that he really was quite fat.

Noticing Solomon's increasingly strange gaze, Xiao Wu immediately stepped in front of Xiao Ba.

"Brother Solomon, my Xiao Ba is not food. Don't look at him with those food-loving eyes!"

Solomon immediately turned away guiltily. "When did I?"

After the two laughed and bickered for a while, they finally teleported to the Star Dou Forest.

"Xiao Ba, go scout ahead." Xiao Wu patted the Soft Bone Rabbit's head.

The big fat rabbit reluctantly spat out the carrot scraps, his three-lobed mouth twitching twice before he suddenly perked up his ears and pointed southeast. "Coo coo!"

Huh?

Had this stupid rabbit discovered something?

Solomon followed the sound and saw a ripe wild fruit growing to the southeast.

The next moment, Xiao Ba pounced beneath the fruit at lightning speed, his face full of greed.

Xiao Wu felt that she had embarrassed herself enough. "Come back, stupid rabbit! How can you still be thinking about eating at a time like this?"

Solomon held back his laughter and said nothing. In the end, he simply turned around and summoned the Winged Unicorn with a summoning array.

The Soul Beast Contract Array could not only form contracts with soul beasts; once a contract was established, it also created a Soul Beast Space. In most cases, soul beasts could cultivate within the Soul Beast Space created by their spirit master.

The Winged Unicorn usually did not come out. On one hand, he was a shut-in; on the other, he was socially anxious.

It was hard to imagine that the king of the unicorn herd, a Winged Unicorn that had reached ultimate evolution, was actually a shut-in with social anxiety.

He had seemed so dignified when they first met. Who would have thought he was actually like this?

If there were games and comics in the Soul Beast Space, Solomon would have suspected that he would evolve into an otaku loser.

The moment the Winged Unicorn was summoned, he snorted sleepily.

"What is it? Are we fighting?" He had grown familiar with Solomon, so he no longer bothered with honorifics.

"No." Solomon's mouth twitched slightly. "This time, I'm going to speak with the master of the Star Dou Forest. The Soul Beast Pokemon plan has been progressing very smoothly recently, so I hope the forest's master can sign a contract with me and cooperate. That would allow young spirit masters to freely enter the Star Dou Forest to seek Contracted Soul Beasts. During that time, the forest's master must also protect the young spirit masters' safety."

The Winged Unicorn seemed to roll his eyes. "Isn't that idea a little too wishful?"

Without that God-tier charm affecting him this time, the Winged Unicorn would not let Solomon suppress him.

Solomon merely smiled without speaking. "It's fine. You only need to carry Xiao Wu and me there."