Lu Fei looked towards the doorway and saw Tietouwa, carrying the unconscious Brother Ji again, rush in. As soon as it saw Lu Fei, who had already woken up, its face lit up with genuine happiness. After such a long time together, they had established a deep friendship.
Brother Ji was someone it respected, while Lu Fei was a trusted companion.
Lu Fei hurried over and took Brother Ji. At this moment, Brother Ji was covered in dirt as if dug up from the ground. His eyelids fluttered, and his mouth occasionally let out a low whimper...
Lu Fei glanced at Tietouwa, somewhat confused. Brother Ji had always been a coward, and after Lu Fei had been unconscious for a week, Brother Ji should have recovered by then. Why was he like this now...?
Tietouwa began to gesture wildly. Its serious and earnest expression, combined with its hurried and anxious hand movements, was incongruous. But to Lu Fei's dismay, all its efforts were in vain; he couldn't understand a single thing.
He had no choice but to place Brother Ji on the bed first.
"Brother Ji... Brother Ji..."
Lu Fei called out affectionately. Brother Ji reacted, his eyelids lifting slightly.
Lu Fei's face brightened, and he quickly asked, "What's wrong?"
Brother Ji opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He simply pointed at Tietouwa with his finger.
Tietouwa's guilty face flushed red.
Lu Fei was silent for a moment, thinking. After a while, he seemed to understand and said seriously, "Don't worry, your disciple is fine."
Brother Ji painfully turned his face away, tears rolling down his cheeks...
After some more time, Lu Fei's small team finally returned to full strength!
In the courtyard, Lu Fei and Brother Ji sat at a stone table, leisurely warming some wine. They held thumb-sized wine cups, savoring the drink with relish, engaged in pleasant conversation.
"Brother Ji, what happened that day?" Lu Fei was still very curious about Brother Ji's experience after transforming into Aidas.
Brother Ji sighed deeply, still feeling lingering fear. "I transformed into that big toad before, and now into this Aidas fellow. When I transformed, I didn't feel much, but once I started attacking, the power within me felt like it was being drained madly. I couldn't control it at all. After throwing a punch, I remembered nothing."
Lu Fei shifted his posture, his expression filled with surprise.
"Can you still transform like that in the future? If we encounter any troublesome guys, you can just transform and unleash a punch, wouldn't that instantly finish them off?"
Brother Ji suddenly leaned back, a look of terror on his face. "Of course not! I almost lost my life!"
Lu Fei rubbed his chin and nodded.
"That's true. Not only you, but to save you, I almost lost my life too."
Brother Ji suddenly exclaimed, "Hey, Old Lu, I've always been curious about something."
Lu Fei looked at him, puzzled. "What is it?"
"We don't have a contract relationship, so why is it that when my stamina is exhausted, your mental power is also drained?"
"I don't know. Actually, I'm quite puzzled too," Lu Fei said, sitting up straight. "And Brother Ji, have you noticed that when my strength increases, yours also increases? And I've seen your current level, it's the same as Tietouwa's. Also, what you said about being able to inherit part of the strength of the transformed object, you've confirmed it this time, it's true!"
"My level is the same as my disciple's?" Brother Ji pointed at himself, utterly astonished.
Lu Fei hummed in response. "Yes, although your combat power hasn't increased, your level has never fallen behind!"
Brother Ji fell into deep thought. His disciple worked tirelessly, getting up early and going to bed late, and his level was only 35. But he, on the other hand, did nothing but eat, drink, and sleep, yet his level kept increasing rapidly. Could it be that he was truly a genius?
As he thought about it, a smug expression spread across Brother Ji's face.
Lu Fei waved his hand in front of Brother Ji's face. Brother Ji snapped back to reality.
"Hey, Old Lu, I have an idea. Can't you enter that Dark Ranking? Why don't you take me in for a fight? It doesn't matter if we get injured in there anyway. I can just transform, throw a punch, and then run away."
Lu Fei slapped his forehead. "Right! Let's go try it!"
Without further hesitation, they went directly to the battle machine. However, how to bring Brother Ji in became a major problem. To enter, Brother Ji had to be placed in a beast-taming scroll, but the beast-taming slots were already full...
After a long silence, they looked at each other and smiled.
A moment later, a round and cute creature that was sleeping was thrown out of the beast-taming space.
The sleepy Lengtou Snake was instantly awakened, blinking its small eyes in confusion.
Thus, Lu Fei and Brother Ji signed a temporary contract beast agreement, allowing Brother Ji to enter the beast-taming space.
They then entered the Dark Ranking battle space. Tietouwa had wanted to follow and observe, but it was ordered to stay outside and watch. This was the master's command, so it could only accept.
They arrived at the familiar Dark Ranking space, which was still a huge battle arena with a large screen in the middle. The robot welcomed Lu Fei's arrival.
After a long string of nonsense, Lu Fei got straight to the point and began matching with an opponent.
Shortly thereafter, a masked figure appeared on the left side of the screen.
The robot beeped a few times and then announced loudly:
"Red side Beastmaster - Lao Liu! Dark Ranking points: 0."
"Blue side Beastmaster - Zhan Niu! Dark Ranking points: 100."
Lu Fei clenched his fists, a little excited. This was an opponent who had won matches before, and their strength might even be greater than that of the girl with the green ghost mask he had encountered that day!
"Please summon your contract beasts."
As the voice fell, Zhan Niu's rough voice roared, "Come out! [Fiery Tiger]!"
"[Fiery Tiger]!"
Lu Fei was very familiar with this name. When he was training in the Yanbei region, wasn't the A-class mission to hunt a [Fiery Tiger]?
Lu Fei pointed his beast-taming album at it, and his heart skipped a beat.
---
Contract Beast - [Fiery Tiger]
Level - [lv81]
Attribute - [Fire Attribute]
Combat Power - [1410]
Rarity - [A-class]
Skill - [???]
---
Across from Lu Fei, Zhan Niu's expression was the opposite of Lu Fei's.
"Level 35?" he muttered.
He doubted his eyes for a moment.
He roared at Lu Fei, "Kid! Are you looking down on me?!"
Lu Fei twitched his lips and didn't answer. He whispered to Brother Ji, "Brother Ji, the strength gap is a bit too large..."
Brother Ji swallowed hard, mustered his courage, and said, "It's all an illusion anyway, what are we afraid of!"