Monster Pet Evolution

This seemed like a really primitive way to foster intimacy with one's familiar. It certainly had a Southeast Asian vibe to it.

Of course, it wasn't as immoral as one could imagine.

Gao Peng now knew the pros and cons of the 'adoption' ritual that Guo Qingshan had explained to him.

The downside to it was its high mortality rate. However, getting the chance to have a combat-ready familiar immediately outweighed the risks by far.

Under ordinary circumstances, one would usually sign a blood contract with a familiar when it was still in the early stages of cognitive development. The downside to this was that it would need time to develop into a fighting force to be reckoned with.

The Southeast Asian region's 'adoption' ritual was a way for trainers to immediately sign a blood contract with a fully matured familiar without having to go through the whole growing-up process.

However, it would only work with familiars that had recently lost a child. The loss of a child tended to place them in an emotionally vulnerable state, making it easier to fool them into adopting another child of a different species.

…

"Mom, we did it. We defeated the bad guys," said Gang Mu, gently stroking the Giant Tarsier's fur. He knew exactly where the Giant Tarsier liked to be rubbed.

Gang Mu looked straight at the Giant Tarsier's eyes. Even though he had signed a blood contract with it, he still had mixed feelings towards it.

The Giant Tarsier had changed his life in so many ways.

He had originally been the child of a fruit farmer, with one older brother, three younger brothers, and two younger sisters.

Life had been hard for him and his family. His parents had barely been able to make ends meet each day. Since childhood, he had never had a full stomach, as he had to share food with the eight other people in the house.

Then, everything had changed on the day of the Cataclysm.

Two of his siblings had been devoured by mutated wild boars when the Cataclysm struck.

The money that had been intended for Gang Mu's betrothal had to be used for their funerals.

His father had been forced to send him to a military training camp in exchange for money, which had then been used for two of his younger brothers' engagements.

Gang Mu hadn't expected to survive the training process. He had even prepared his own will after hearing about the training camp's ridiculously high mortality rate.

Not only had he survived, he had also gained the Giant Tarsier's trust and officially become its 'foster child.'

Once they were close enough, Gang Mu had convinced the Giant Tarsier to sign a blood contract with him and officially became a monster trainer.

With his newfound place in society, he had managed to persuade the farm's owner to let his parents work the easiest jobs on the farm for more money.

He had also signed a contract with his former trainers that allowed him to become a high-level trainer in the training camp as soon as he came back from the tournament.

Ambition tended to grow as one climbed higher up the social ladder.

At first, the only thing he had thought about was survival. Now, he wanted more.

His Giant Tarsier had never met its match, at least not until that day.

Even if they're on the same playing field, my Giant Tarsier would definitely not be able to beat Gao Peng's bag of bones. I need to become stronger, thought Gang Mu. He clenched his fists. Ever since he was a child, he had understood all too well that if he wanted something, he would have to work for it. No one was going to serve it to him on a silver platter.

…

Gao Peng felt awkward watching the contestants battle it out from the break room.

I only became a referee because I was too powerful. Also, there's money to be made here. There's no way I would pass on such a lucrative opportunity!

After thinking for a while, Gao Peng took out his phone and punched in a number.

A few miles from the stadium, a yellow feathered figure was peeking into a woman's bathroom through a window from a tree branch. Suddenly, the sling bag hanging from its shoulder began vibrating.

Two seconds later, a song began playing from the bag. "One little duck went swimming one day, over the hill and far away..."

Goldie dumbly looked at its vibrating sling bag.

Someone shrieked inside the bathroom. "Who the hell is out there?!"

"Quack?" Startled, Goldie fell from the branch and landed on the ground with a thump.

It scrambled to its feet and waddled off into the nearby woods, where it plopped itself on the ground and stared at nothing in particular.

The phone was still vibrating inside the duck's sling bag.

Back in the break room, Gao Peng muttered to himself, "Pick up, Goldie..."

A well-toned woman emerged from the bathroom fully clothed. She entered the kitchen and took a kitchen knife out of one of the drawers.

"I'm going to carve whoever was watching me in the bathroom like a turkey!"

The woman, who looked just as muscular as Mu Tieying, stepped out of the house and surveyed her surroundings like a hawk. This was where the servants that worked in the mountain villas lived. It was a rather isolated area, especially during the day when it was deserted.

Suddenly, her ears pricked to a familiar sound from the nearby woods. The woman's eyes flashed dangerously as she slowly walked towards the woods...

"Quack?" Pushing past a couple bushes, she finally came face to face with a yellow duck carrying a red sling bag over its shoulder.

The woman, whose name was Li Shanlian, looked around her and saw no other suspicious figures in the vicinity.

She looked back at Goldie.

Goldie dumbly looked back at her. After a long while, it said, "Quack quack quack?"

Li Shanlian felt a bit let down when she realized that her voyeur had been a duck. She spat at it, "Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Quack quack quack." Goldie ignored Li Shanlian and waddled off deeper into the woods...

When it had finally left the servants' area, it reached into its bag and took out its phone with its wing. "Quack?"

"What took you so long?" said Gao Peng impatiently. Even though he could communicate with his familiars through their blood contracts, he could only do so within a certain distance.

However, the good thing about signing a blood contact was that he could understand what his familiars were saying.

"I was... busy," stammered Goldie.

"All right, I want you to do something for me. Go help me make a couple of bets," said Gao Peng. "We'll definitely be making a lot of money from this. Do this for me, and I'll give you two more dried fish every day for a whole month!"

"Quack?" Goldie's eyes lit up.