The runes on the stone slab had vanished, leaving it completely clean, without a single trace.
"This rune should be a master-servant rune for subduing magical beasts. Totem Pillar, you're a weapon. You should be using the proper blood-binding ritual, not butting in here and making a whole hole in this stone slab." Lei Mo felt uneasy.
"Come on, come on, Pillar. Talk to me."
Still astonished, Lei Mo couldn't resist fooling around a little. To his surprise, the Totem Pillar really did float over to him.
"Ah... Th-this..."
Lei Mo didn't know what to make of it. You're a weapon! How could you understand what I said?
"You—you—you!"
Lei Mo had completely lost his mind. His intelligence had fallen far below normal. He was dumbstruck; in both his lifetimes, he'd never encountered anything like this. Had this Totem Pillar become conscious?
Lei Mo's mind raced. As far as he knew, nothing like this existed in this world. At the very least, a being had to be a plant to count as a living creature!
The Volcano Giant seemed like it might be an exception, but who knew whether a Volcano Giant was actually a volcano or simply liked living near one? The latter seemed more likely.
After a bout of frantic thinking, Lei Mo's wits finally returned.
What was happening now? This Totem Pillar seemed to have developed a consciousness. Was it friend or foe? He'd been treating it as a weapon. Would it get angry?
While Lei Mo was fretting over it,
"Master—" A childish voice rang out in his mind, impossible to tell whether it was male or female.
"Who?" Lei Mo jumped in fright. This was the cave he'd just blasted open!
"You?" Lei Mo looked at the floating Purple Totem Pillar.
"Master—" It seemed like this fellow only knew that one word.
Lei Mo approached the Purple Totem Pillar and wrapped his right hand around it. At once, a thought entered his mind.
"Master—master—master!" The voice was clear and bright, repeating itself again and again.
But Lei Mo's head still felt fuzzy. It was still just that one word.
"Can't you learn some new words? Like handsome, dashing, charming..."
He couldn't continue. He'd grossed himself out.
"Handsome... dashing..." This time, the Totem Pillar's voice rang out through the air.
Lei Mo also remembered the contract rune he'd set up—or rather, the contract magic array.
He realized it was somewhat different from a Rune. If he had to say what it resembled, the magic array contained multiple runes.
Lei Mo tried communicating with it telepathically.
"Pillar... Pillar..." What a lousy name. Lei Mo mocked himself.
"Master, I..." The Totem Pillar's voice rang in his mind as well.
"Pillar, do you have a name?" Lei Mo had gotten the hang of this method of communication.
"I... I..." The Totem Pillar didn't seem to know how to speak.
Lei Mo had no choice but to patiently teach the Totem Pillar to talk.
More than ten days passed. The Totem Pillar could now manage simple conversations. Lei Mo felt it was quite intelligent; it just wasn't very good at expressing itself.
"When did you come into being?" Lei Mo could finally ask.
"I came into being an extremely long time ago. I don't know exactly when. Back then, there were no people on the continent, nor any animals. There were only some plants."
"At that time, I had only a vague consciousness. Then I took root in the Earth. Countless years later, eight stone pillars much like me somehow came into being. Each pillar was the same size as me, though the runes on them were much simpler." The Totem Pillar spoke slowly.
"Wait! Wait! Eight pillars? You're the ninth Totem Pillar?"
"That can't be right. If you're the ninth, purple Totem Pillar, can you change size?"
Lei Mo remembered the purple pillar being nearly a hundred meters tall. Then he watched as the Purple Totem Pillar quickly grew thicker and taller, until it reached the top of the cave. By then, the pillar was as thick as the mouth of a washbasin.
"Haha, so you're basically a wish-fulfilling golden cudgel."
Lei Mo was delighted. Who hadn't envied Sun Wukong?
"Oh, right... Go on."
"After those eight stone pillars appeared, I felt my consciousness grow a little clearer. But I still couldn't move or change in any way. All I could do was keep taking root in the Earth."
"Until one day, eight Tauren came. Each of them sat beside one of those eight pillars, staring blankly at the runes on them every day."
"Then their strength grew greater and greater. They pulled out the eight pillars and used them as weapons. When they weren't using them, they put them on display, so the other Tauren could study the Runes on them."
"Wait! You said they pulled out the Totem Pillars. How thick were you back then?" Lei Mo asked, puzzled.
"About as thick as the mouth of an ordinary washbasin. Later, as I grew bigger, the other eight grew bigger and thicker too!"
"Oh... And then?" Lei Mo felt a little embarrassed for always interrupting.
"One day, I suddenly noticed souls flying into my body. After that, my consciousness grew clearer again."
"Those souls seemed to disappear, but actually they were just hidden in the space inside my body. I don't know what that space is, or where it is."
"I just have the feeling that I can let the souls stored in that space come out and enter it again. I know nothing else."
"At first, I often let those souls out. That's how the Tauren learned that the eight pillars could preserve souls!"
"Other powerful Tauren would often linger around the eight pillars, studying them."
"Those Tauren either died of old age or met with accidents. As long as they'd studied the pillars, their souls would return to the space inside my body."
"As a result, more and more souls filled that space, and my consciousness grew clearer and clearer."
"Over time, the souls that had studied the Runes transformed into Runes themselves, manifesting on my body and the other eight pillars."
"Later, the souls of those with lower levels of strength became very dull. So I stopped letting them appear as souls and only let them manifest as Runes."
"Then you arrived, Master! When you came, you discovered me!"
"That made me very curious. You came over and touched me with your hand, and I was astonished to discover that I could move."
"Master, you're the only person in countless years who's been able to see and touch me!"
The Totem Pillar's voice was fervent.
"After you left, I broke through the roof of the great hall. I followed your scent to your package, burrowed inside, and imitated the shape of that black wooden rod."
Lei Mo finally understood what had happened, but not all his questions had been answered.
"Then why didn't you speak at first?" Lei Mo asked whenever something puzzled him.
"Although I'd always had a consciousness, I couldn't move for countless years, and my consciousness was very simple. I couldn't speak, either—not until you dripped your blood into the space inside me."
"Wait! Are you saying the blood I used for the blood-binding ritual didn't enter the Totem Pillar—your body—but went into the space inside you?"
"Yes, Master. After your blood dripped into the space, it gradually began to change. How should I put it?"
"Right! It was like me—it seemed to come alive, and my soul consciousness could enter and leave the space freely."
"That hadn't been possible before. Also, I feel more like a living being now."
"When you drew the magic array this time, I felt only a little from the first one. But the second one made the space inside my body tremble continuously, and instinctively, I stood on the magic array."
"You saw what happened afterward, Master. My soul consciousness established a connection with yours—the so-called contract."
"But I feel close to you from the bottom of my heart. It's more like we're connected by blood. When I see you, Master, I can't help but feel admiration!"
"And this closeness doesn't seem to have anything to do with that contract."
Before you continue