The Charm of Soul Pets

NEW NOVEL: First and foremost, I'm delighted to announce that our long-time veteran translator littleshanks has finally launched his new novel, Rise!  Rise is a novel about the esports scene in Shanghai, the competitive gaming capital of China. It follows the story of Lin Feng, a boy who has just moved to the city for his last year of high school. He's a passionate gamer and dreams of being the best professional League of Legends player in the world. The twist? He almost achieved his dream, but failed at the...

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City Lord Li was very cordial, telling them to stay a few more days and inquiring whether Chu Mu and the others were willing to take a position under him.

Everyone’s impressions of City Lord Li was rather good. However, they couldn’t delay Bai JInrou’s matters, and had to go with Bai Yu as soon as possible to save Princess Jin Rou.

“Eh, we never said we would immediately leave. We want the materials you have. Can we use Devil Souls to exchange?” said Chu Mu.

“Oh? You even managed to capture Devil Souls?” Mu Yuanen was stunned, and spoke with a bit of shock.

City Lord Li and Mu Yuanen had the same expression. If they hadn’t encountered the devils, then logically speaking, they shouldn’t have made it to the Devil Souls.

“Wasn’t City Lord going to exchange for our captured Devil Souls? If we didn’t capture Devil Souls, why would we return?” said Prince Chao.

“You guys said you didn’t encounter the devils. We thought that you…” City Lord Yu coughed and didn’t finish his sentence. Instead, he put on a smile and continued: “Then come with me.” 

City Lord Li brought them to the place where the materials were kept materials. Mu Qingyi didn’t follow them and stayed in the great hall to talk with her third grandfather.

Mu Yuanen was a bit surprised when he saw Mu Qingyi because he could sense that this grand niece of his had reached the dominator rank.

Mu Yuanen had been to New Moon Land and his impression of the place was that the resources there were few. Entering the dominator rank there required more diligence than what others normally required. 

Mu Qingyi’s memory of her third grandfather was very vague, and she was still slightly suspicious as she looked at him. She waited for him to speak first.

Mu Yuanen said to Mu Qingyi: “I never expected you would come to Cloud Realm. The truth is that your grandfather hoped you would stay in New Moon Land.”

Mu Qingyi didn’t say anything. She just stared with clear eyes at Mu Yuanen.

Mu Yuanen sighed and continued: “You probably don’t know about the Mu Family’s situation, right?” 

Mu Qingyi nodded her head. She used to think she had a very clear understanding of the Mu Family. However, after arriving in Cloud Realm, she discovered that the Mu Family was ostensibly much larger than her imagination. 

“Cloud Realm is ruled by two people. One is your second grandfather, Mu Yingqiao. The other is Realm Lord Li Mang. Mu Qingyiao is the main branch of the Mu Family that descends from Mu Tong in Jiang City.” said Mu Yuanen. 

“This is a bit complicated.” said Mu Qingyi.

“Our Mu Family is very large. It’s large enough to rule over an entire Border Kingdom. Border Lord Mu Chuan is currently our dynasty’s ruler. Under Border Lord Mu are many branches. One of them is the Mu Tong branch. Mu Tong is your great grandfather’s brother and he is the leader of this branch.” 

Mu Qingyi understood the lineage part, but she never expected her family to be so large. Indeed, when she was young, while the Mu Family had given her a feeling of complex immensity, this feeling was like comparing a family to an empire when she heard Mu Yuanen describe the Mu Family Dynasty. 

Mu Qingyi’s great grandfather was the King Mu of Wanxiang City. King Mu had established Wanxiang Realm, transforming the Wanxiang territory which originally did not belong to human territory, into a prosperous human empire. Although this empire changed lords not long after, his efforts would always remain recorded in the history books.

As for Mu Tong, who Mu Yuanen had mentioned, Mu Qingyi had never heard of him before. Nor had she ever heard before that her great grandfather had a brother. 

“Our branch is not very cohesive. The main factor behind this is that that old man is innately very free spirited. He doesn’t interfere with any family matters and even now, I don’t know where that old man has wandered off to.” bitterly laughed Mu Yuanen.

Mu Qingyi knew that the old man Mu Yuanen was speaking of was King Mu. Everyone in New Moon Land had believed that King Mu had already passed. Nobody realized he was still alive and moreover living so free spiritedly. 

“Then what about my grandfather?” Mu Qingyi was most concerned about this right now.

Even if her family was large, Mu Qingyi cared only about those that were directly blood related. She had lost her father and mother at a very young age and was brought up after by her grandfather. However, her grandfather had mysteriously left not long after. This left her initially and seemingly bustling family to become abnormally quiet and cold. The family in Mu Qingyi’s heart had suddenly had only become her, alone. 

Now, her family had suddenly become incomparably large. But what did that matter? A family without anyone close to her wasn’t a family to her.

After reaching the spirit emperor rank, one’s life would extend to about 200 years. The life of a spirit dominator was even longer. There being five generations at once was a normal occurrence. However, the feelings of a person wouldn’t change just because her life was extended. Those that could genuinely establish a bloodline connection would always be those within three generations of each other.

“Your grandfather, Mu Zuoli, is an exact copy of that old man. I haven’t seen him myself in many years. Our family lord, Mu Tong, ordered him to take command of protecting Cloud Realm. Under normal circumstances, he should be staying in Cloud City. However, knowing his personality, even staying one year among the ten years in Cloud City would already be incredible.” 

When he spoke of Mu Zuoli, Mu Yuanen’s mood didn’t seem to good. However, even if he didn’t like his younger brother, he wouldn’t shift his grievance to Mu Zuoli’s granddaughter. When he thought of his grandniece spending her entire life alone and bitterly in New Moon Land, Mu Yuanen felt a trace of guilt in his heart. He should have sent people there to bring her to Cloud Realm earlier. Mu Zuoli and that old man never bothered with family matters and it was him who had to take care of them. 

Mu Yuanen roughly told Mu Qingyi about a few things regarding Mu Zuoli. Mu Qingli listened very attentively. 

After finishing, the great hall was suddenly silent. Mu Yuanen was immersed in old memories of the family when he abruptly realized that something wasn’t right. He switched topics and said: “Why did you guys suddenly appear in Cloud Realm? Isn’t that old fogey still protecting Cloud Gate? He let you pass into this realm?” 

Mu Qingyi didn’t feel like she needed to hide the events of Wanxiang City to Mu Yuanen. Indeed, with an elder there to guide them, they would be able to understand even more.

Thus, Mu Qingyi gave a rough account of Wanxiang City’s situation. 

After listening, Mu Yuanen’s mouth was hanging wide open. After a long while, he stared at Mu Qingyi and said: “You… you’re saying that you plan… plan on taking New Moon Land out of Cloud Realm?” 

Mu Qingyi seriously nodded her head.

“My grandniece, you had best not speak about this…” Mu Yuanen lowered his voice and quickly chanted an incantation, creating a barrier in the great hall.

Three Great Palaces had been established in New Moon Land for thousands of years. Their duty had always been to protect New Moon Land. The history annuls recorded that it was Three Great Palaces that had quelled several sweeping calamities. Mu Qingyi felt that there was no faction more suitable to administering New Moon Land than Three Great Palaces. If New Moon Land was placed in the hands of someone else, especially those of Ling Chan and Li Kuangdeng, how would Mu Qingyi be able to accept this? 

“Our branch of the family can only be considered a large family in Cloud Realm. However, the true controller of Cloud Realm is still surnamed Li. Initially, the establishment of Wanxiang Realm should have made it part of your great grandfather’s private territory. However, your great grandfather did something troublesome that led to Divine Sect stripping him of the territory. Now, New Moon Land is under the administration of Cloud Realm, or in other words, the Li Family. It doesn’t matter that you killed LIng Chan. However, it’s a problem that you killed Li Kuangdeng. Indeed, Li Kuangdeng received orders to go to New Moon Land. By killing him, the higher ups of Li Kuangdeng will definitely be infuriated.” Mu Yuanen rubbed his temples. This matter was a bit troublesome. 

“We didn’t have a choice.” said Mu Qingyi. 

“It doesn’t matter. You need to think of a last resort plan. You guys just left New Moon Land and don’t understand how strong the ruler is. This Chu Mu you speak of is still young and cannot beat someone of Cloud Realm’s Realm Lord. Moreover, the moment he fails, your new Moon Land will be continuously fought over by various factions.” said Mu Yuanen.  

“I believe that he can do it.” said Mu Qingyi.

Mu Yuanen looked in Mu Qingyi’s eyes as if he was going to read her eyes. He sighed: “I will send someone to look for that old man, since he still has a bit of power in Cloud Realm. If he can suppress this matter, then you guys had best not say anything. Hand over the administration right to Li Ziran. Although that fellow is a bit muddleheaded, he is kindhearted and doesn’t leave home. Your New Moon Land will be able to govern itself and just have to occasionally report back with some information as well as pay a few taxes in accordance with Cloud City’s laws.”

The so-called taxes were actually soul crystals, spirit stones, medicine materials and various spirit items. In the past, this had been completed by LIng Chan before he ended up passing all of this on to Empress Concubine Yu Suo.

The resources of New Moon Land were innately scarce. Moreover, the territory was surrounded by forbidden regions. If they would have to pay the amount of spirit items in accordance with Cloud Realm and other third rank realms, New Moon Land probably would not be able to produce many dominator rank experts in the future. The number of spirit emperors and spirit masters would also greatly decrease.

However, Mu Qingyi felt that having a way out of this matter was good. If King Mu could come out and resolve this matter, she would put a bit more effort into collecting tax spirit items by obtaining them from bewildering worlds in Cloud Realm. This way, New Moon Land would be able to develop better.

“Let’s leave this for now. Your aptitude isn’t bad and I’ll think of ways to raise you to the spirit dominator rank. This way, your strength increase will be even faster. Stay here at mine for now. You’ll be able to enter the spirit dominator rank in at most three years. When you reach that level, I will recommend you to go to the Mu Tong Family. When you reach Jiang City, you’ll have more room to increase your strength.” Mu Yuanen had already thought it through. If his grandniece was able to obtain dominator rank creatures without any assistance, she was a rare talent. She would probably be able to become an outstanding young talent in the Mu Family Dynasty.

”Mu Qingyi shook her head and said: “I want to continue training with my friends. Also, I can feel  my soul remembrance barrier slackening. Perhaps I won’t need three years to breakthrough.” 

“Qingyi, you should know that by obtaining the family lord’s recognition, you will be able to stand at higher heights in the future. You will easily be able to surpass your friends.” said Mu Yuanen. 

Mu Qingyi still shook her head. She didn’t want to stand at higher heights. She was like Chu Mu - solely dedicated to the soul pet path. More importantly, however, she was gradually discovering that her heart wasn’t as closed as it was in the past. 

The feeling of loneliness was not easy to bear. Mu Qingyi had tasted this feeling from a young age and despite becoming the Heavenly Concubine who was revered and respected by New Moon Land, she was still standing alone at the top. All she could see from there was a group of boring people. She didn’t know what reason she had for remaining firm in her resolution. 

During that time, there was nobody like Ye Qingzi who she could confide with. There was nobody like Ye Wansheng who would wantonly flirt with her. Nor was there someone like Chu Mu...

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