In a room decorated in shades of pink.
Gu Yuexi had already finished drawing the Blood Contract Array on the floor.
In the center of the Array coiled a large, emerald-green snake, a full meter long.
A Spiritual Cyan Snake, a High-Level Bloodline. Once it reached adulthood, it would be a Fifth-Grade Demon Beast!
This was the first Contracted Beast Gu Yuexi had meticulously chosen for herself after her rebirth!
For a Beast Tamer, the first Contracted Beast was of utmost importance. It not only determined a Beast Tamer's growth rate, but could even decide their ultimate potential!
After all, one could not contract a second Demon Beast before becoming a Fifth-Grade Beast Tamer...
In her previous life, Gu Yuexi's first Contracted Beast was merely a Low Level Bloodline 'Big-eared Rabbit'—a weak Demon Beast that had almost no chance of ever reaching the Third-Grade.
For most people, contracting such a Demon Beast basically meant their path as a Beast Tamer was completely ruined!
But Gu Yuexi, relying solely on her heaven-defying talent for Beast Taming, had spent three years forcing the Big-eared Rabbit through three evolutions! She had forcefully raised it into a Fifth-Grade Demon Beast!
Only then did she become a Fifth-Grade Beast Tamer, finally able to contract a second Demon Beast...
'Spending three whole years investing so much money and energy into a Big-eared Rabbit was truly such a waste.'
'Besides, after reaching the Fifth-Grade, that Big-eared Rabbit had completely hit its limit. It couldn't advance another step. Once I became a Sixth-Grade Beast Tamer, it became a total burden, completely useless in a fight!'
'That meant I would always have one less Contracted Beast than other Beast Tamers of the same grade! The impact on my combat strength was enormous!'
'During my final Heavenly Tribulation, if only I'd had just one more Eighth-Grade Contracted Beast, I wouldn't have failed to withstand that last bolt of heavenly lightning...'
Gu Yuexi thought to herself silently. Her stunningly beautiful, yet cold face was expressionless, but a fervent heat burned in her eyes as she gazed at the Spiritual Cyan Snake.
'A Demon Beast with a High-Level Bloodline...'
'Peerless talent for Beast Taming, plus a High-Level Bloodline for my first Contracted Beast, plus starting my Cultivation of the Beast Taming Dao at eighteen!'
Gu Yuexi couldn't even imagine how powerful she would become in this life!
The corners of her mouth lifted slightly. Deciding not to dwell on it any longer, she activated the Blood Contract Array with a single thought!
In an instant, a dazzling white light erupted from the Array, enveloping both Gu Yuexi and the Spiritual Cyan Snake.
Gu Yuexi narrowed her eyes, raised a finger to her mouth, and bit the tip, forcing out a drop of blood.
Now, all she had to do was let the blood drop onto the Spiritual Cyan Snake, and the two of them—human and beast—would successfully form the Blood Covenant!
Once the Blood Covenant was formed, it could never be broken!
"Come, my first Contracted Beast..." Gu Yuexi murmured, watching the drop of blood slowly fall from her fingertip.
BZZZ~~
A faint buzzing, like a mosquito, sounded out.
Gu Yuexi, wholly focused on forming the Blood Covenant, didn't notice a thing.
At that moment, Chu Sheng landed on a long, pale, and slender leg. He was so dizzy and disoriented that he couldn't think at all.
Acting almost on pure instinct, he controlled his proboscis, making it thicker and harder, and then viciously plunged it into Gu Yuexi's thigh!
SLURP!!
He began to drink frenziedly!
Fresh red blood poured through his proboscis and into Chu Sheng's body, causing his flat abdomen to gradually swell and turn red...
[Qi Blood +0.03]
[Qi Blood +0.05]
[Qi Blood +0.03...]
The system notifications rang out continuously.
At the same time, Chu Sheng could feel his "Physical Ability" rapidly recovering as he ingested the blood. The dizziness and near-death sensation quickly vanished!
Chu Sheng finally let out a huge sigh of relief. 'Damn, I almost died!'
'Thank goodness there was a living creature I could suck blood from within a hundred meters!'
'Hm... and it seems to be a young woman with a pretty good figure?'
'Not bad. At least it's not some sweaty old dude. Sucking her blood doesn't give me any psychological hang-ups!'
Chu Sheng was very satisfied. He took two more gulps, and only when he felt so full he couldn't drink another drop did he reluctantly pull out his proboscis.
[Ding! Host has absorbed 0.15 Qi Blood! Current Total Qi Blood is 0.16!]
[Notice: After Qi Blood Value reaches 1, the first evolution can be performed!]
'I can evolve once I reach 1?'
Chu Sheng was a little surprised. 'Looks like evolving isn't that hard. Don't I just need to feed five or six more times?'
'Not bad, not bad. I could consider living in this girl's house and just... you know, suck her blood a few more times...'
'Huh?! The Blood Covenant failed?'
Just as Chu Sheng's mind was racing, an astonished female voice suddenly rang out in his head.
Chu Sheng: "???"
'What the hell was that?'
'That wasn't the system's voice!'
'Impossible! How could the Blood Covenant fail? Isn't it supposed to have a 100% success rate?'
The female voice continued, filled with disbelief and shock: 'No... wait! The Blood Covenant didn't fail! I... I think I've already formed a Blood Covenant with something...'
'Such weak Mental Power...'
'A mosquito?'
'No, no, no! My Perception must be wrong! How could I possibly contract a mosquito?!'
'Calm down, perceive it carefully...'
'...'
"HOLY SHIT!!!"
Those last two words weren't just something Chu Sheng heard in his mind; his auditory organs heard them as well...
'That sounded... like the voice of the girl I was just feeding on?'
The baffled Chu Sheng became even more baffled.
'What's going on?'
'Why can I hear this girl's thoughts?'
'And what the heck is a Blood Covenant?'
"A mosquito... How is that possible..."
Gu Yuexi's eyes were glazed over. No one could possibly know the breakdown and despair she was feeling in that moment!
After a brief moment of shock, she gradually understood what had happened...
Just now, in the instant before she was about to form the Blood Covenant with the Spiritual Cyan Snake, a mosquito had happened to land on her leg and take a bite!
Her blood had come into contact with the mosquito just a moment before it could reach the Spiritual Cyan Snake!
And so...
The Blood Contract Array had immediately ruled that she had formed the contract with the mosquito!!
A mosquito!
A mosquito from the very bottom of the food chain!
The great Beast Taming Empress, in her life after rebirth, had contracted a mosquito as her first Contracted Beast?
Gu Yuexi's face was deathly pale, and her Spirit felt dazed for a moment. Across her past and present lives, she had never felt so hopeless and lost.
'Are the heavens deliberately toying with me?'
Even if she had contracted a Low Level Bloodline Demon Beast, or even just an ordinary animal, Gu Yuexi was confident that she could defy fate and raise an ordinary animal to the level of a Fifth-Grade Demon Beast!
But...
A mosquito was just the absolute lowest of the low among insects!
Just evolving it into a First-Grade Demon Beast would already be considered a fate-defying miracle!
The Fifth-Grade?
Raising a mosquito to the Fifth-Grade?
Even for Gu Yuexi, the very thought left her with nothing but despair!
It was absolutely impossible!
'This Empress... I think I'm finished?'
Chu Sheng: "..."
He was pretty sure he understood now.
'No wonder I can suddenly hear this girl's thoughts...'
'So I accidentally formed a Blood Covenant with her?'
'So...'
'This is a world with Beast Tamers?'
'This girl is someone who's been reborn? She was the Beast Taming Empress in her past life?'
'And now... I'm her Contracted Beast??'
Chu Sheng's thoughts were a complete mess.
'What the hell is all this?!'