Forced Summoning

Forced Summoning

"Beasts always have weak points and vital spots. Where is the Great Water Rhino Beast's vital spot?" Li Junshan saw a xenomorph that could not dodge in time take a Water Arrow. Luckily, it only grazed past its shoulder and carried away a few strips of cartilage, but the xenomorph struck by the Water Arrow was noticeably slower. He grew even more anxious.

"Its abdomen," Fate said in a trembling voice. "The Great Water Rhino Beast's abdomen is comparatively softer. Everywhere else is harder than metal and stone. Ordinary weapons can't hurt it at all."

The Great Water Rhino Beast was five meters tall, while its legs were not even half a meter long. Four thick pillar-like round legs stood together, firmly shielding its abdomen in the middle. Li Junshan directed the xenomorphs to stab at its belly, but every attempt was blocked by the Great Water Rhino Beast's legs.

An idea stirred in his heart. Li Junshan directed two xenomorphs to lift up the dead xenomorph, then suddenly tear it in half, flinging the skyful of green blood toward the Great Water Rhino Beast.

Hiss...

The Great Water Rhino Beast let out a miserable cry. Wisps of white smoke rose from its armor-like skin. They thrashed their bodies violently. Although the xenomorph's blood failed to corrode open holes in their bodies, it still burned patches of their skin charred black.

Soon, the dead xenomorph's blood had been flung dry, and the two Great Water Rhino Beasts were also corroded all over with mottled spots. While constantly using their sharp horns to toss aside the xenomorphs pouncing at them, they slowly retreated toward the river channel.

"Scared now, are you!" Li Junshan jumped up in excitement.

At that moment, thick Water Mist began to gather around the riverbank. Fate's face changed drastically, and he shouted, "Hurry and call your summoned beasts back! I can feel water elements gathering madly over there. The Great Water Rhino Beast is preparing a high-level spell."

Li Junshan's chest full of joy was instantly doused by a basin of cold water. Gritting his teeth, he held his breath and focused all his attention on the Great Water Rhino Beast, ready at any moment to have the xenomorphs withdraw.

"One, two, three... eh!" Fate discovered something and said in surprise, "That's not right. Didn't you have five summoned beasts? One died, so why are there only three here?"

Li Junshan had no time to pay attention to him. In his heart, he counted silently, "Three steps, two steps..."

The white mist grew thicker and thicker, almost covering the Great Water Rhino Beast's enormous body inside it. Within the white mist, sharp Ice Spikes more than half a meter long slowly began to form, packed so densely together that there was no telling how many there were.

"Hurry!" Fate shouted anxiously. "Any later and it'll be too late."

No sooner had his voice fallen than he saw Li Junshan leap up in excitement. At the same time, the larger Great Water Rhino Beast let out an earth-shaking miserable cry. The skyful of white mist immediately scattered, and the half-formed Ice Spikes fell all over the ground.

A xenomorph emerged from underwater, its long tailbone stabbed deep from beneath the river into the larger Great Water Rhino Beast's abdomen.

"You..." Fate was dumbstruck. He had never expected that from the very beginning, Li Junshan had actually directed a xenomorph to secretly lie in ambush in the river, launching a fatal strike at the critical moment.

Was this still a novice who had only just summoned his summoned beasts? He was clearly a Summoner master who had weathered a hundred battles.

Fate followed Li Junshan as he ran toward the riverbank, both amazed and admiring.

Did Li Junshan really have such foresight? The answer was, of course not. From the start, he had thought the xenomorphs might need a bit of effort, but that they would definitely deal with these two level-six beasts. Afraid that the Great Water Rhino Beasts would flee if they could not win, he had sent one xenomorph far around the battlefield to swim over underwater and be ready to intercept them at any moment.

He had not expected the fight to be so fierce, nor that the two Great Water Rhino Beasts would be beaten into fear. The larger one tried to flee while summoning a large-scale water-element spell, and only then did Li Junshan stumble into success by sheer accident, instantly killing the caught-off-guard Great Water Rhino Beast.

By the time Li Junshan and Fate ran to the riverbank, the larger Great Water Rhino Beast was already dead. The smaller one had also been knocked to the ground by several xenomorphs. Four xenomorphs formed a circle and pressed their tailbones against its abdomen. The smaller Great Water Rhino Beast occasionally spat out Water Arrows that had no power at all, trembling in an extremely human-like manner, its large eyes filled with terror.

"Xiaoshan—ah no, Master." Fate saw Li Junshan direct a xenomorph to dig a huge, glowing blue Beast Core out of the Great Water Rhino Beast's body. He pounced to Li Junshan's side and cried, "I will follow by your side forever and use my loyalty and life to protect you. Give me this magic crystal!"

Fate's face was full of deep emotion, his eyes fixed on that magic crystal as he knelt on one knee and hugged Li Junshan's thigh, shaking it hard.

Li Junshan held the Beast Core up before his eyes and looked at it against the sunlight. In the center of the Beast Core, there seemed to be ice-blue liquid flowing ceaselessly, casting dazzling radiance beneath the sun.

"It's very useful to you?" Li Junshan toyed with it in his hand.

"Too useful." Fate said excitedly, "I'm a water-element mage. This water-attribute magic crystal can make my magic cultivation several times faster. With it, maybe I'll be able to advance very soon."

"If you want it, give me a reason first. Besides, I suddenly realized you know too many of my secrets." Li Junshan stared at Fate. The latter saw a xenomorph drooling as it walked to his side, and felt his hair stand on end.

Li Junshan continued, "Let me tell you the truth. I'm a noble descendant from Floro City. I ended up here only because I suffered misfortune, and sooner or later, I'll have to fight my way back. Other than you, no one else in this world knows the secret of my summoned beasts, and I don't want too many people knowing. Tell me, what should I do?"

Fate shivered, straightened his body, and knelt on one knee. Placing his right hand over the left side of his chest, he said with a solemn expression, "I swear upon the honor of the Balte Family that for my entire life I will follow..." At this point, he glanced at Li Junshan. Fate only knew that everyone called Li Junshan Xiaoshan, but he still did not know his name.

Li Junshan smiled faintly and said, "Nicholas. Nicholas Harriman."

Fate immediately said, "I, Fate Malte, swear upon the honor of the Balte Family that for my entire life I will follow Mr. Nicholas Harriman's side and regard him as my master. I will be loyal, brave, firm, and unwavering, and use my blood and life to defend Mr. Nicholas's honor, never regretting it until the end of my days."

"The aura of a conquering king is no good, but the method of a big stick plus a carrot should work no matter what world it is." Li Junshan thought this in his heart, then smiled as he helped him up and smoothly stuffed the magic crystal into Fate's hand, saying, "In the not-too-distant future, you will be proud of your wisdom today."

Swearing in the name of one's family was the most solemn and inviolable thing in this world. Li Junshan had learned this before. Although he did not think too highly of Fate's magical attainments, having one more person by his side who was loyal to him and also fairly familiar with this continent made Li Junshan feel that one level-six Beast Core was still worth it.

Although a level-six Beast Core could be worth tens of thousands of gold coins, money was not the most important thing to the current Li Junshan. Besides, he still had a noble father in Floro City. If he were merely pursuing wealth, he had dozens of ways to gather a great amount of wealth in the shortest time, but the problem was that he might not be able to keep it.

Money was a good thing, but only if you had the life to spend it.

Fate held the Great Water Rhino Beast's Beast Core. He could clearly sense the abundant and pure essence of water elements within the Beast Core. For a moment, he actually could not believe he had obtained it so easily.

Only after he slowly calmed his excited mood did he discover that Li Junshan had, at some unknown point, sat cross-legged to one side and was meditating to recover his spiritual power.

Silently looking for a while at the still-childish Li Junshan, Fate felt as though he were in a dream.

A vast Spirit Space, breaking through to Battle Master in one month, several dozen Innate Summoned Beast eggs, being able to summon five beasts in one breath, precise control over summoned beasts, a grasp of the overall battlefield situation...

"Perhaps he's still a pretty good master." Fate smiled faintly, sat down beside Li Junshan, put the magic crystal into his robes, gathered his mind, and entered meditation.

Fate was pulled back from meditation by bursts of strange, miserable screams. Opening his eyes, the scene before him made him gape.

The surviving Great Water Rhino Beast had been overturned on the ground. Two xenomorphs firmly held down its four limbs, while Li Junshan sat in front of it, constantly drawing Summoning Contracts. When the crisscrossing contract pattern was about to sink into the Great Water Rhino Beast's forehead, the Great Water Rhino Beast, refusing to be summoned, blocked the formation of the contract pattern mentally, and the pattern dispersed above its forehead.

At that moment, one xenomorph would use its tailbone to precisely carve a bloody mark across its abdomen. The xenomorph's movements were very gentle, and not much blood flowed from the cut-open wound. All it brought the Great Water Rhino Beast was intense pain.

The other two xenomorphs holding down the Great Water Rhino Beast were not idle either. They opened their huge mouths, and a cylindrical tongue suddenly stabbed out, carrying a sharp whistling sound as it stopped one inch away from the Great Water Rhino Beast's eyes. This terrified the Great Water Rhino Beast even more than the pain in its abdomen. It struggled desperately, letting out agonized howls from its mouth.

Looking at the countless wounds on the Great Water Rhino Beast's abdomen, Fate felt a chill in his heart. He bent his waist and ran to Li Junshan's side, saying quietly, "Master, this won't work. Even if you can force it to complete the summoning, once it recovers later, there's a very high chance it will launch a spiritual backlash. That would cause great harm to your soul. There have been many precedents like this on the continent."

"It won't have that chance." Li Junshan smiled faintly and said, "I only need its body to incubate my beast egg."

Fate opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

Another summoning, another refusal. This continued seven or eight more times in a row. The Great Water Rhino Beast, tortured beyond endurance, finally could no longer bear the torment of both flesh and spirit. When the Summoning Contract flew to its head for the last time, it made no resistance at all, allowing its soul to be branded by the devil before its eyes.

Li Junshan let out a breath of relief. The meditation time had not been long, and his spiritual power had only recovered a small portion. Now, it was more or less completely exhausted.

He sent the Great Water Rhino Beast into his Spirit Space and directed a Xenomorph Egg to hatch. The Facehugger instantly wrapped around the tragically fated Great Water Rhino Beast. Inside the Summoner's Spirit Space, the Great Water Rhino Beast had no power to resist and allowed the Facehugger to implant the embryo into its body.

The four xenomorphs patrolled the surroundings warily according to Li Junshan's will. Li Junshan waited patiently for that xenomorph's birth, his heart even more nervous than when the first xenomorph had burst out of its host's body.