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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Nightmare Palace had existed for thousands of years, and this creature was like an incomparably powerful specter that had shrouded this ancient palace for this period of time!

With the specter that lingered around the old Nightmare Palace, countless unknown stories had occurred over the long thousands of years.  

Some of these stories were heroic, some were of calamity, and even some were the heartwrenching tragic tales of absolute experts like Bai Yu...

Yet, like a god or a devil, it had always looked down upon Nightmare Palace’s thousand year history from its perch, using its arrogant eyes to look contemptuously at these humans who worshipped it. 

    ……

Chu Mu lifted his head, and stared at the extremely old White Nightmare. 

Perhaps in the eyes of people like Nightmare Emperor Jiang and Shen Qiu, they viewed it as the undisputed king of Nightmare Palace. It was a god that had to be piously believed in and devoted to. However, to Chu Mu, it was just an old man on its deathbed. 

It didn’t matter if it released its dominator rank aura or not, or whether its laughter would render people filled with respect and fear. Nor did it matter how it concealed itself. Chu Mu was able to tell that its life force aura was exceptionally weak! 

The Nightmare Ancestor also took on the form of a human. Presumably, this human was someone from thousands of years ago. 

Chu Mu had heard a bit about the Nightmare Ancestor’s circumstances. The Nightmare Ancestor used to also have a master, but after its master died from old age, it became the protector of Nightmare Palace. 

A mere protector had lasted for thousands of years. It was no wonder that all of the senior elders were extremely respectful of the Nightmare Ancestor from the bottom of their hearts. Such a special guardian god, lasting for generation after generation, would lay the roots of respect at a very early time, and preclude all of Nightmare Palace’s higher ups from having any thoughts of blasphemy! 

“Jie jie~~~~” the Nightmare Ancestor was half hovering in the air. Its aged silver pupils were staring at the old hermit and Nightmare Emperor Jiang as it let out a series of strange noises. 

The old hermit and Nightmare Emperor Jiang didn’t do anything. However, they lowered their heads further, as if they were two pious subjects earnestly listening to the instructions and teachings of their old king. 

Chu Mu couldn’t understand what the Nightmare Ancestor was saying. Its words were probably being changed by some soul voice. Otherwise, neither the old hermit or Nightmare Emperor Jiang would be able to understand. 

Suddenly, as it was communicating, the Nightmare Ancestor lowered its head and stared intently at Chu Mu! 

“Nie!!!!!” the Nightmare Ancestor let out a terrifying devil cry. Instantly, a mental suppression violently attacked the area, causing their five minds to enter a disordered state. It was as if their minds had been broken by the shock of the sound! 

Nightmare Emperor Jiang, the old hermit, Shen Qiu and Shen Mo hastily kowtowed, prostrating their entire bodies on the ground! 

 “Ancestor please calm down. Ancestor please calm down. This young man has always revered you. He was just excited being able to see you today and has no intentions of offending you!” the old hermit flusteredly spoke. His wrinkled face seemed to have paled. 

Nightmare Emperor Jiang angrily glared at Chu Mu. He grit his teeth, but didn’t dare say anything! 

Shen Qiu and Shen Mo could only kneel there, their bodies slightly quivering. 

They had wondered what the strength of the Nightmare Ancestor who was at death’s door was like. However, after they felt its dominator rank mental roar, they realized that even at the end of its life, killing them would be extremely easy! 

The Nightmare Ancestor swept his gaze over the five of them. After quelling its anger, it let out a strange sound, and its old body lifted up into the air before descending somewhere in the darkness.

The darkness was slowly dispersed by the Nightmare Ancestor’s silver flames, revealing a white bone-like sacrificial altar. The Nightmare Ancestor descended onto the most dense spirit aura area of the bone sacrificial altar, sitting there in solitude. It used its hand to hold its head and closed its eyes. The silver flames on its body began to chaotically waver… 

The old hermit finally raised its head. However, when he saw the Nightmare Ancestor sitting on the tall bone altar and felt the dominator rank intimidation pressure, he felt that standing was extremely hard. It was as if he was facing a thousand year devil king. The only thing he was capable of doing was piously kneeling. 

“Old Ancestor, we’ll leave first.” the old hermit said very quietly. 

The other three didn’t dare doubt his words at all and slowly left.

Chu Mu finally came back to his senses. Seeing the others leave, he followed them out of the space that belonged to the Nightmare Ancestor.

Using their original way, the five of them passed through the spatial array and returned to the earth burning in devil flames. 

At this point, the old hermit, Nightmare Emperor Jiang, Shen Qiu and Shen Mo all let out sighs of relief. Inside Nightmare Ancestor’s domain, moreso than worrying about their voices, even their heart beats were careful! 

Nightmare Emperor Jiang’s stature was tall and mighty. He walked up to Chu Mu and angrily glared at him. Clearly, his actions just now had made this Nightmare Emperor abnormally angry. 

“Chu Fangchen, do you want us to die from your arrogance?!” Nightmare Emperor Jiang’s anger soared! 

“Emperor Jiang, Chu Fangchen is still young and was just curious…” Shen Qiu hastily spoke up for Chu Mu. 

The old hermit also glanced at Shen Qiu and coldly said: “Next time don’t bring an unfamiliar person. Hmph, his curiosity nearly lost our lives.” 

Chu Mu looked at Nightmare Emperor Jiang and the old hermit who had strong opinions towards him. However, he calmly stood up and said: “If it was angry because I was staring at it, then it would have used a nightmare cry to warn me at the start…” 

“Brother Chu, what do you mean by that?” Shen Mo looked at Chu Mu, silently thinking that this fellow was too gutsy. Even in front of the dominator rank Nightmare Ancestor, he still dared raise his head. Fortunately, the Nightmare Ancestor didn’t punish him for that. 

“It only has a few breaths remaining. The truth is it didn’t care if I was looking at it or not. The reason why it intentionally showed off was to let us know that it is still very powerful.” bluntly said Chu Mu.

Even if the Nightmare Ancestor was in a fully healthy state, Chu Mu wouldn’t be afraid of it. Now that it was dying, no matter how much this crafty old fellow pretended and covered up, it couldn’t escape the eyes of another dominator rank expert like Chu Mu. 

“A load of crap!” said the old hermit. 

“It’s up to you whether you believe me or not.” calmly said Chu Mu. 

Seeing this young man be so disrespectful to his elders, the old hermit was even more angry and looked like he was going to teach Chu mu a lesson! 

“Old Jiang, forget it. Let’s just do what’s next.” urged Shen Qiu. 

The Old Hermit harrumphed. He had no good impression of the young man Chu Fangchen.

“The Nightmare Ancestor wishes to enjoy its last years, and will not help our Nightmare Palace anymore. However, in order to ensure our Nightmare Palace will have a new guardian, it plans on choosing the most optimal White Nightmare from the five of us to receive its inheritance.” Nightmare Emperor Jiang didn’t beat around the bush. 

“The method of selection is very easy. All five of us will summon our White Nightmares and they will fight each other. The White Nightmare that wins will obtain the old ancestor’s inheritance.” added the old hermit.

Direct inheritance!! 

Shen Qiu’s face was full of excitement. 

Shen Qiu had thought they had come here to help the Nightmare Ancestor find a method of prolonging its life. He never expected the Nightmare Ancestor to plan on directly passing on its inheritance. That meant that one person’s White Nightmare among the five of them would take another step towards the dominator rank! 

It was quite often that being able to take another step in between the emperor rank and dominator rank meant that it would or would not be able to enter the dominator rank in its entire lifetime! 

“Then let’s summon our White Nightmares.” calmly said the old hermit. However, the eyes hidden under its hood flickered with a light that was tough to conceal. It seemed that this fellow really coveted that inheritance! 

Chu Mu didn’t immediately summon his White Nightmare. He was confused. Didn’t Shen Qiu say earlier that the White Nightmare that would receive the inheritance would be chosen by the Nightmare Ancestor? Could the fight between the five of them be to test the true strength of their White Nightmares? 

As Chu Mu was full of confusion, the old hermit and Nightmare Emperor Jiang summoned their White Nightmares! 

The two White Nightmares took on the appearance of their respective masters. Their evil and ostentatious flaming bodies seemed even more devilish with the background of the burning earth! 

Chu Mu swept his gaze over the two White Nightmares. He could see that they had reached the paragon emperor realm and their strength was almost identical to the Nightmare Ruler! 

The next one to summon was Shen Qiu. Shen Qiu’s White Nightmare was also a paragon emperor with strength two levels higher than a normal peak emperor. However, its aura was slightly inferior to Nightmare Emperor Jiang and the old hermit’s White Nightmares. 

The reality was that the three White Nightmares were probably on the same power level. The only way to determine which one was weaker and stronger was through a fight. Rank and aura were not indicative of a soul pet’s true fighting abilities. 

“My White Nightmare’s qualifications are too shallow. This younger generation will not fight with you elders.” at this point, Shen Mo said something that made the other four a bit surprised.

The four others immediately looked at Shen Mo. It was hard to believe that he would choose to give up. 

“Shen Mo, have confidence in yourself.” when Shen Qiu saw that his son didn’t plan on competing for the inheritance, he was immediately a bit anxious.  

In reality, Shen Qiu hoped the most for Shen Mo to obtain this inheritance. Indeed, Shen Mo was still young and had more room to grow. He wasn’t like the rest of them who were already more than halfway done with their lives and power pretty much fixed. 

Shen Mo shook his head. His attitude was firm.

Shen Mo’s White Nightmare was extremely close to the paragon emperor rank, but hadn’t actually reached that rank. Although the temptation of obtaining the inheritance could make any expert who was stuck at the bottleneck of a rank go mad, Shen Mo knew that he could not win against the White Nightmares of these elders. 

Chu Mu looked at Shen Mo and silently exclaimed: Shen Mo’s temperament is outstanding. Even in these circumstances, he was able to firmly give up. A normal person would be incapable of doing this! 

“Chu Fangchen, how about you?” Shen Qiu saw that Shen Mo had made up his mind. He didn’t continue trying to persuade him and moved on to Chu Mu. 

“Me? Of course I’m going to compete!” Chu Mu’s response was very firm! 

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