Chapter 599 - Use Value

Translated by Jouissance of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Ling Xiao started laughing.

The Weasel Beast didn’t understand why he was laughing, and started laughing as well, but soon enough, he wasn’t able to laugh anymore.

“A Weasel Beast like you? Are you for real?” Ling Xiao spoke mildly, yet there was clear contempt in his tone. No matter him or You XiaoMo, any normal demon beast that followed them would only become a burden.

The Weasel Beast might be a high level demon beast, and even a mutated variant, but his combative ability was relatively low amongst high level demon beasts. He wouldn’t be much of an asset in a battle to them. The only reason he could rule this island was because he was lucky enough that there were no powerful high level demon beasts.

The Weasel Beast clearly felt that the other was insulting him, his eyes red with anger. So what if he was a Ground Squirrel Beast? He was proud of being one!

“What do you mean, am I for real? You should be honored to have the chance of becoming this king’s comrade. If it wasn’t for Master, then this king would never lower himself to sharing a Master with someone like you.”

“That’s your attitude when wanting to become someone’s contracted demon beast?” Ling Xiao’s lips curled, seemingly in a good mood. He was actually willing to sit here arguing with the Weasel Beast, but the Weasel Beast wasn’t so happy.

“It’s not like this king wants to form a contract with you, so what does this king’s attitude have to do with you?” The Weasel Beast replied arrogantly.

“Of course it has to do with me.” Ling Xiao narrowed his eyes.

The Weasel Beast’s expression remained unchanged, clearly disbelieving, and asked, “Then go on, what does it have to do with you?”

Ling Xiao responded in an amused tone, “Any demon beast that wants to form a contract with him has to get my approval. As for why, that’s simple: because he’s mine.”

“Mine?” The Weasel Beast was stunned. Was it what he thought it meant? “You...”

Ling Xiao crossed his arms. “If you want to become his demon beast, sure, but first, tell me what use value you have.”

The Weasel Beast didn’t know how to react at all. The other had said the words “use value” so straightforwardly that it had stunned him. He was speechless for a good while.

“My patience is limited,” Ling Xiao added lightly.

The Weasel Beast finally snapped out of his stupor. For some things, it was better to believe they were true no matter if they were or were not. He personally thought it was rather absurd because the island was rather isolated, so he had interacted with very limited numbers of people and demon beasts. He hadn’t ever heard of the idea of a man with another man.

However, he couldn’t not believe it, otherwise, if it was true, then wouldn’t he had offended his future master’s other half?

As a clever and amazing Weasel beast, he had to show his courage and gain his master’s other half’s acknowledgement.

“I naturally have great use value, and, and not just one...” The Weasel Beast stuttered, “My greatest value is my intelligence network.”

“Oh? And how does that work?”

The Weasel Beast saw his neutral expression, and, unable to figure out what he was thinking, could only continue, “I have a talent that normal Weasel Demons don’t have. Only an aberrant like me has this talent, that is, to be able to control all rodent demon beasts.”

Ling Xiao raised an eyebrow. “What? You?”

The Weasel Demon once again felt like he was being looked down on, but this time he didn’t get angry. He puffed out his chest, saying confidently, “Of course, let me tell you, this talent of mine is really powerful. I can produce a special kind of sound wave that only rodent demon beasts can hear. It can control all rodent demon beasts, and as my cultivation base grows, this talent will get stronger, too. Right now I’m not all that strong, but after I become even higher leveled, then I’ll be able to control all rodent demon beasts with a weaker cultivation base, or even those on par with me.”

Originally, he had wanted to say level eleven or even twelve, but this goal was a bit of a stretch. To prevent being taken as a joke again, he didn’t say it.

Ling Xiao’s interest was finally roused. At first he hadn’t held much hope at all.

There were very few records of aberrant Weasel Demons, because Weasel Demons were on the lower end of high level demon beasts, and aberrant Weasel Demons hadn’t appeared in tens of thousands of years. The other reason was that Weasel Demons had this brutish look about them. Female cultivators didn’t like them and male cultivators found them too weak, so very few practitioners would form contracts with Weasel Demons.

“Then let’s try it,” Ling Xiao said. After all, he hadn’t been shown any evidence yet.

“What?” The Weasel Demon, too lost in his own pride, didn’t manage to react immediately.

Ling Xiao continued, “Summon all the rodent demon beasts on this island,” he suddenly realized, though this sound waves trick was pretty useful, this demon beast’s IQ was too low.

The Weasel Demon hesitated for a moment before obeying.

It was then that Ling Xiao realized why the other had hesitated. Rodent demon beasts generally reproduced very rapidly, and with the Weasel Demon there to back them, they lived better lives than any other kind of demon beast on the island. Thus, their population was ten, twenty times the size of the other demon beasts on the island.

All these rodent demon beasts, of different shapes and sizes, like swarming ants, darted out of the forest group by group. Around five to six meters of ground around the hut was filled with rodents.

What was the funniest was that these rodents had brought their entire families with them. For example, newborn rodent demon beasts, lying there limply, were being carried on their parents’ backs. It was probably because Ling Xiao had asked for all rodents, so the Weasel Demon had complied, even gathering the newborns.

Ling Xiao, “...”

As expected, IQ wasn’t just an incurable injury in humans, but demon beasts, too.

You XiaoMo, who was refining pills, suddenly shuddered. Any normal person, seeing so many rodents, would be shocked, especially someone like You XiaoMo who had transmigrated over: so many rats!

“That’s enough, send them all off.” Ling Xiao waved a hand.

“Ok.” The Weasel Demon was rather nervous, and immediately had the rodents leave upon hearing this order. Thus, the swarm of rodents retreated back into the forest like the tide. Some were slower, some accidentally tripped over, and some walked for quite a ways away before realizing their children were missing then ran back to get them...

What a bunch of dumb rodents.

Ling Xiao then asked, “Apart from this talent, do you have anything else?”

Hearing this, the Weasel Demon was conflicted. In order to change Ling Xiao’s impression of him, he had showed off his signature talent. It wasn’t like he couldn’t do anything else, but none of those were as good as this one. If he really did show them, then they’d just get worse and worse, and wouldn’t have just make the other’s impression of him worse and worse?

“There are other... er, minor talents. Do you want to see them?”

This time, he wasn’t arrogant.

Ling Xiao chuckled. “Never mind then.”

The Weasel Demon carefully asked, “Then, did I pass the test?”

Ling Xiao replied, “Seeing as you still have some use value, I’ll give you a chance, but...”

The Weasel Demon almost cheered in excitement, but then, hearing the but, tensed again.

“But, I’m merely giving you a chance to meet him. In the end, it’s up to him if he wants to form a contract with you or not,” Ling Xiao then said, his gaze moving to You XiaoMo, who was still refining pills. Today had gone smoothly, too. It shouldn’t be long until another Lightning Retribution came.

The Weasel Demon’s face fell, but he was still in high spirits. He just had to work harder and get his master to form a contract with him, then he’d be able to eat delicious turkeys in the future. Let’s go!

Go go go!

If You XiaoMo knew that he had his mind set on the turkeys, then he definitely wouldn’t form a contract with the other.

His Qiu team already had enough gluttons. If another joined, then he really wouldn’t be able to deal with it. Plus, he wasn’t aiming to make a team of gluttons.

When the Lightning Retribution came, it was still You XiaoMo who acted.

It seemed easy, but only those who had personal experience would know that it wasn’t. Otherwise, if it was so easy to deal with, there wouldn’t be so many rainbow grade mages troubled over Lightning Retribution, or struck down by it, resulting in their efforts all gone to waste.

After an hour, the thunderclouds dispersed.

You XiaoMo took the newly refined pill from the cauldron and placed it with the one from before. Two was enough for them to use. If they ran out, then he’d make some more in the future. By then, the magic herbs in his fields would have matured.

“Who is that?” You XiaoMo came over to Ling Xiao and suddenly noticed the Weasel Demon. Last time, he hadn’t seen the demon beast, so he didn’t know of what the master of the island looked like.

The Weasel Demon immediately revealed a bootlicking smile, though it wasn’t very successful. Since he wasn’t all that good looking in the first place, it even seemed a little terrifying.

The corner of You XiaoMo’s mouth twitched.

Ling Xiao smiled and explained, “He’s the Weasel Demon, the master of this island. He wants to form a contract with you. You decide if you want him or not.”

You XiaoMo hesitated. This was the first time a demon beast came over to try and get him to form a contract.

Generally, the more scarce they were, the more valuable demon beasts became. Those that came running over for a contract were different from those who were sought out by practitioners. The latter was considered much more valuable.

The Weasel Demon could tell that he was hesitant and hurriedly said, “Master, I might seem like any normal Weasel Demon, but I’m actually very strong. I can control many rodent demon beasts and make them obey and gather information for you. I promise, I won’t disappoint you if you form a contract with me. I have other talents, too...”

This was also the first time he had ever seen a demon beast sell their talents like this.