Chapter 124: Living Beast Contract

The combat energy was slowly draining away. Finally, after a long while, it stopped being absorbed. The little dragon showed a satisfied expression, lying on Rod’s shoulder and letting out a contented burp with a pleased look.
“Now is the time! Concentrate your mental energy and communicate with it—make it accept your idea!” Sensing this, Xuan Yuan hurriedly spoke, his voice tinged with excitement and anticipation.
“Communicate with it to make it abandon its physical body and serve me as a soul?” Rod asked doubtfully, frowning. It seemed such a thing didn’t require communication. He had never heard of a warrior needing to communicate to gain a beast’s acceptance when capturing its soul. After all, no beast would willingly give up its body to become a soul, to be enslaved and lose all autonomy and thoughts, turning into a mere fighting tool. Except for magicians, who formed equal contracts with beasts to become symbiotic partners.
“Hmph, what do you know about beast souls? Heh, those are just the lowest-level existences. It’s the method those warriors use when they can’t form a contract and must forcefully capture the beast’s soul, pulling its essence into their own body to raise it as a puppet! Do you know what’s right in front of you? It’s the most powerful dragon race in this world, enhanced by the Divine Dragon Soul I’ve infused—creating a divine being. Wasting that would be foolish. Only a fool would do that. If that were the case, I could have just given you the dragon soul directly.”
Frustrated at Rod’s ignorance, Xuan Yuan roared in anger.
“True higher existences, though also called beast souls, are actually living beasts with full freedom. Only then can they unleash their greatest power! You know nothing. Fine, do as I say!” Xuan Yuan continued after his roar.
Another advanced form of a beast soul—a living beast? Isn’t that the same as a magician’s beast? Though puzzled, Rod trusted that Xuan Yuan wouldn’t deceive him. He quickly concentrated his mental energy and, without hesitation, followed Xuan Yuan’s instructions.
He focused his consciousness and let it spread along with the little dragon, delving deeper. Sensing his consciousness approaching, the little dragon hesitated for a moment before letting out a roar and swiftly allowing Rod’s consciousness to enter its mind.
“Dad!” A cheerful cry made Rod want to cry. He had become a father…

With a bitter smile, he dealt with the little dragon’s enthusiasm, following Xuan Yuan’s instructions and communicating with it mechanically.
“Really? Really have to do this? As long as Dad needs it, I have no objections!” Through this exchange, Rod realized that the little guy’s intelligence was probably only on par with that of a five- or six-year-old human child. The little dragon quickly agreed to Rod’s requests, giving Rod a sense of evilness akin to inducing a minor to commit a crime.
“Master, hurry and agree to it! Do as I said!” The little dragon’s agreement excited Xuan Yuan, who shouted eagerly.
After the conversation, Rod prepared the little dragon and, following Xuan Yuan’s method, slowly activated his own combat energy. Guided by his mental power, it began to flow throughout the little dragon’s body. The smooth flow of meridians made Rod understand why dragons were so powerful—this was a testament to their innate talent.
He filled the little dragon’s body with his own combat energy, guiding its consciousness to merge with his own!
The little dragon resisted Rod’s actions not at all but instead cooperated earnestly and actively. Soon, the two consciousnesses intertwined and began to merge.
In an instant, a massive amount of information flooded Rod’s mind—the sheer volume was astonishing. Severe pain spread through his brain, forcing him to cry out in agony.
It was unclear how long it lasted. It only stopped when he felt he could barely hold on any longer. Everything returned to calm, and he had merged with the little dragon’s thoughts. He could clearly sense the little dragon’s thoughts now, and he believed the little dragon could sense his own as well.
“Mm, good. It went smoothly. From now on, we must be extremely careful—no mistakes allowed, or it won’t work. Remember, there’s only one chance for this method, just once in a lifetime!” Xuan Yuan’s tone became unusually serious as he earnestly warned Rod.
“This method is a secret technique I stumbled upon in ancient books. The caster infuses his own life force into the body of a magical beast, creating a bond between them through bloodlines. At the same time, the magical beast must also voluntarily supply its own life force to the caster, allowing them to merge. After establishing a mental connection, bloodline ties are formed! The goal is to unify the mind, bloodline, and body. Then, use this incantation to cast the spell. Remember, no mistakes are permitted—this spell is very dangerous.
Especially when it comes to life force, it must be controlled precisely—only 50% can be taken, neither more nor less. One extra bit will surely kill you, and one less won’t be enough! The incantation must not be mispronounced, and the seals must be formed correctly—otherwise, all efforts will be in vain.”

It seemed he was still worried that something might happen to Rod, so Xuanyuan reminded him again. Indeed, this spell was too dangerous—even the person who had tried it before wouldn’t have dared to attempt it lightly. After all, the risks involved were unbearable. If it weren’t for the great effort he had put in this time, along with his previous observations suggesting a decent chance for Rod, Xuanyuan definitely wouldn’t have chosen this method!

“Okay, I promise!” He nodded firmly, silently vowing to himself. Rod understood better than anyone what vital essence meant—after all, having been in the world of warriors for so long, he knew quite a bit about it.

Vital essence was the lifeblood of a person, located in the heart area. It was the purest and most concentrated blood in the body. A person only had a small amount of vital essence, and this blood was what controlled their life!

If a person lost more than 50% of their vital essence instantly, they would die without a chance of rescue, even by gods. Moreover, anyone who lost even a small amount of vital essence would see their physical condition severely affected in a short time—slightly, it would cause weakness; severely, it could take months to recover.

Even Rod, with his extraordinary physical condition, knew that if he really sacrificed 50% of his vital essence, it would take at least three days of careful treatment and cultivation using the medicines Xuanyuan mentioned to recover to about 70-80%, and that only under perfect conditions.

This showed just how low the success rate of this spell was and how dangerous it was.

“Start!” With a low growl, Rod said to Xuanyuan. For the future, for greater strength, he had to take this risk. Rod knew he wanted to become the strongest man, the king of mercenaries—he had to overcome all difficulties.

“Good! Let’s begin! Remember not to force it—follow my instructions!” Xuanyuan reminded him once more.

As soon as he spoke, Rod closed his eyes, frowned slightly, and began pressing on his heart. Marks kept forming on his hands, changing rapidly, and his complexion began to change, turning crimson after a moment.

“Break!” Eliminating the last barrier, he finally forced out his vital essence. At this moment, it was time to test Rod’s control and precision over his combat energy—there could be no mistakes. The results of his practice in the sea of consciousness were now put to the test.

Ten percent… fifteen percent… thirty percent… forty-five percent… It was getting closer and closer. His face turned from red to pale as the depletion and damage to his vital energy caused dizziness in his mind.
“Good, just a little more! A tiny bit will do!” Xuanyuan gently reminded him, closely watching Rod’s every move to give guidance.
“Okay! One last try!”
“Stop, that’s enough. Excellent! It worked!” Moments later, Xuanyuan’s excited shout came through. Under his command and Rod’s precise control, it had succeeded—truly succeeded!
“Control it first. Now it’s Xiao Long’s turn!” Taking over Rod’s consciousness, Xiao Long acted without hesitation. Its task was simple—extracting less than half of its vital energy from the lower three layers was sufficient. As expected, everything went smoothly, and it quickly drew out four layers of vital energy.
“Merge!” It opened its mouth and roared loudly. Instantly, two streams of vital energy flew out and merged in midair, beginning to blend under the control of their consciousness as they spun rapidly.
When it felt it was time, another loud shout came: “Separate!” The merged vital energy split into two streams, flying back toward the two of them. Following the secret technique, Rod quickly absorbed the stream heading toward him while coordinating with Xiao Long’s actions. After integrating it into his body, he swiftly began waving his hand. He murmured the long and complicated incantation.
After finishing the chanting, he was drenched in sweat. Taking a deep breath, he formed the final seal and shouted, “Soul merge, contract!”
Two streams of energy rose from Rod and Xiao Long’s heads and finally merged into one, returning entirely to Rod’s body.
“All transformations, soul merge! Life shared. In my name, I contract!” After pronouncing these words one by one, Rod and Xiao Long’s bodies emitted a red glow, like magma erupting, which gradually faded after a long while.
Pfft… Finally, Rod couldn’t hold back any longer and spat out a mouthful of blood.
“Dad… I… I’m very tired. I’ll go rest first!” Xiao Long’s voice came through his mind. Soon, the little dragon that had been circling his shoulder turned into a red light and vanished into his body.
He quickly lifted his clothes. Sure enough, beside the Xuanyuan Sword tattoo on his dantian, there was now another tattoo in the shape of a little dragon.
“You succeeded, master! You really succeeded!” Xuanyuan’s congratulatory voice came at just the right time.

“Yes, it worked. Finally, it succeeded?” A relieved smile appeared on his face as he thought to himself, letting out a sigh of relief. Suddenly, everything went dark before his eyes, the world spun, and he fell backward! It was over. With a satisfying answer, it was finally over. He needed to rest properly—his mental energy and fighting spirit were completely exhausted, and he could hold on no longer.