"I haven't thought of it for the time being, but don't worry, I definitely won't make you cross your bottom line." Claire said solemnly, her expression serious.
"Really?" Summer frowned slightly and watched Claire alertly.
"Really." Claire nodded. "I promise. Every person has their own limit, I also do, that's why I understand very clearly. Attacking the limit is intolerable."
Summer watched Claire's burning gaze, not saying a word for a while.
"You dressed up like a boy to protect yourself and prevent a little trouble, that's all. Now you can do whatever, because we will protect you well. Whoever looks disfavorable to you, just go up and beat them up, leave the rest for us to settle." Claire said with a brow raised.
"Ah? Really?" Summer became happy. Although she disguised herself as a boy, her delicate and pretty appearance still caused a lot of trouble. There were some nobles who didn't just keep girls as pets and also wanted to lay a hand on pretty boys. She made a dangerous escape each time. She hated those perverts, but she didn't have the power to fight back. Now that she heard what Claire said, naturally she became happy.
Walter curled his lip, very speechless. Claire, that little devil, really knew how to hit their weak spot: beat with a stick, then offering a carrot, as if if they didn't join her gang, then they would be done for. Only, he really didn't expect this thin and weak youngster to actually be a girl. Not only that, they were actually someone from the Ai Luo family, the number one ranked thief family in the world. They dared to steal anything and they were able to steal anything. Rumors say that historically, the most outstanding thief had even stolen something from the Temple of Light after infiltrating into their main temple, and even cut off a lock of hair from the Pope! Nobody was willing to provoke this kind of terrifying family. Who knew if one day you would awake to find a part of your body gone. But it was very hard to formally become a part of the, family and required passing an extremely difficult exam.
"Really. From now on, you can return to dressing like a girl." Claire smiled and seriously nodded as she promised. Which normal girl didn't like beauty? Which was willing to dress themselves as incomparably sloppy?
(TL: me)
"Good, that's what you said. You can't force me to do what I don't want to do." Summer happily said. "Whenever you need me, just tell me. I will try my best for anything within my limits."
"Deal." Claire smiled brilliantly.
"From today on, Summer is one of us." Claire gave everyone solemn introductions. "Summer, this is Wenmo Shui, this is Yixuan Feng, and this is my knight, Jean. May everyone please get along well from now on."
"You're actually a woman?" Wenmo Shui frowned as he circled around Summer and sized her up.
"Haha, very good, very good." Yixuan Feng smiled so wide his eyes were crescent moons. So it was like this, haha, very good. It's a woman, not a pretty boy."
"What are you looking at?" Summer was very uncomfortable with Wenmo Shui's gaze and said angrily, "Do you think I can't steal all your clothes at night and make you walk out of your door naked?"
"It's not like I'm stupid, if you steal everything, at worst, I'll just not walk out the door." Wenmo Shui started fighting with Summer.
"The you can choose any room from the castellan castle. After two days, we'll leave this place. I want to go to the Sprite Forest, and on the way we'll go through Dragon Valley. When the time comes, I'll come up with a way to do what I agreed with you." Claire explained to Summer.
"Alright." Summer didn't pay attention to Wenmo Shui anymore and turned to agree with Claire's words.
"Oh, where did this little beauty come from?" Cliff's voice came from the main hall, directly followed by him running in like the wind in.
"Master, this is a new person to join us, Summer Ai Luo, she…" Before Claire finished speaking, Summer called out in surprise, because Cliff, that old perverted wolf, lifted up Summer's skirt with one swipe.
"Master!" Claire said angrily, unhappy.
"Claire, this person is really Sir Cliff?" Summer held down her skirt, and hid behind Claire with lingering fears with her head poking out to look at the vulgarly laughing perverted old wolf. She had long before heard that everything was good about Cliff except that he was very perverted, but she never would have thought he would actually make this kind of unacceptable action to a person he had just met.
Claire looked at Cliff's vulgar smile and unhappily said, "Master, I'm warning you, you're not allowed to make a move against Summer, or else I'll slaughter you."
Cliff curled his lip and didn't speak any more.
From that point on, with Cliff around, Summer definitely wouldn't wear a skirt any more.
Yixuan Feng and Wenmo Shui were both stupefied. This was their first time they had seen this side of Sir Cliff.
And like so, the day passed with much ruckus.
Night descended, all living beings silent.
Claire leaned on the bedpost, flipping through the book she had gotten from Summer.
"Claire, what is this? You can understand the words on it?" Walter was extremely puzzled. The words on it didn't seem similar to the words everyone knew.
"A little." Claire said perfunctorily.
Treasured Lotus Style Cultivation, a mysterious way of cultivation.
In total there were ten levels.
But Claire felt it was weird because it only had the first level for cultivating and the rest were all repeats, all repeating the contents of the first level. Only after flipping to the very last page did Claire realize what was going on. It was because only after learning the first level and then infusing the pages with lotus power would the contents of the second level appear, and so on so forth.
After Claire set up a magic shield, she sat in the lotus position and started cultivating following the method on the book.
Walter was extremely puzzled, not understanding why Claire would suddenly do these unusual actions, because this wasn't meditation at all.
Claire just kept maintaining this position for two hours. Under the incredulous gaze of Walter, a small golden lotus appeared on Claire's forehead. But once Walter want to look more carefully, the golden lotus disappeared instantly.
But now Claire had entered a mysterious kind of realm. An indescribable happy Qi entered into all four of her limbs, and suddenly, she could feel everything around her clear as crystal. Even with her eyes closed, she could still feel everything around her very clearly. It was a strange feeling she had never felt before, being able to sense all the objects in the surrounding based on the the movement of air.
Only after a long time did Claire slowly open her eyes.
Claire's gaze returned to the book, a light smile emerging on her face.
She seemed to have picked up a treasure this time.
Claire laid back down, looking at the nearby White Emperor. White Emperor just continued to be in a deep sleep. It seemed like last time when he transformed into a human form and insta-killed that Benjamin, it used up a lot of strength. Now, he kept on sleeping deeply to slowly recover.
Walter already lost interest and fell asleep. Although a spirit didn't need to sleep, Walter forcefully closed his eyes to sleep. Using his words, it was only this way that he could feel he was a normal person.
"White Emperor…" Claire gently stroked White Emperor's furry body, her eyes revealing a complex expression.
White Emperor's last words from the time when he insta-killed Benimo were deeply imprinted into her memory.
My contractor, quickly mature.
Claire clenched her fist tight.
Strong, she must become strong!
Claire's eyes became cold. Looking at White Emperor, her gaze became colder and colder, but unwilling and wronged even more so!
Because White Emperor's and Claire's contract was actually a master-servant contract.
However, the master wasn't Claire, but White Emperor!!!
White Emperor was Claire's master!
Only if Claire continuously became strong and surpassed White Emperor would she be able to reverse the contract.
It would be then that Claire could become White Emperor's master!
She definitely needed to become strong, and reverse the contract to become White Emperor's master! Claire breathed out a deep breath, slowly closing her eyes.
Two days later, Claire had roughly finished dealing with all the matters and then gave Heath the right to act on behalf of the castellan. With Niya city's residence seeing her off, Claire's carriage left Niya city.
"You're actually very popular." Summer said sourly. Summer and Claire, along with Jean, were in the carriage. Currently her head was sticking out the window, looking at the group of Niya city's inhabitants behind the carriage.
Claire was silent, not saying a word.
If they wanted to go through the Spirit Forest, they would have to pass through Youwusali, a relatively behind-the-times, barbaric country, then pass through a hazy swamp and Dragon Valley in order to reach Sprite Forest. They had already obtained border passes. Many days prior, once Duke Gordan received Cliff's message that he would bring Claire to go learn from experience, he immediately sent out people to find the fastest way to get passes.
Once they were far from the city, Cliff made everyone switch into the most ordinary clothes. They sold the carriage and all rode on horses, disguising themselves as a small group of adventurers. This way they would save themselves a lot of trouble.
Early on, Cliff had told Claire that on the journey, Claire and them would deal with whatever they met themselves. Only if there was a life-threatening danger would he make a move and save him. Only this way could they achieve the results of learning from experience.
His words made very good sense.
Claire also felt that doing it that way was good.
But could someone tell her why there was a dragon here? Wasn't it that they had to go Dragon Valley – the place where dragons lived – to see dragons?
Why was it that the moment they entered the ravine filled with thick fog, they would suffer from a dragon's attack?
There was a gigantic three-headed black dragon, one head spit fireballs, one spit water arrows, and there was one that could actually blow out wind blades.
Bizarre!
What kind of dragon was this?
"Daddy me's mood right now is really bad! I'll slaughter you guys!" This dragon actually could spit out human words!!!
Claire set up a fire shield, blocking the water arrows the giant dragon had spit out. Summer was behind Claire. Looking at the mad giant dragon, she stuttered, "Claire, I did want to steal teeth, but aren't there too many mouths?"
You don't say! A normal dragon would have one head and one mouth, but this dragon actually had three heads and three mouths, wasn't it too many?
Cliff stood far away, observing the other side's situation from high up.
Yixuan Feng and Claire set up magic shields, blocking the waves of mad attacks from the giant dragon. Their hearts were incomparably depressed. What was going on? They had never heard of a dragon here, only a few lower level magic beasts. Before they entered the ravine and were resting in a village, the villagers all warned them repeatedly that recently, this ravine was always filled with thick fog, and from time to time, produce the sound of angry roars. Many low level magic beasts ran away from this ravine. The villagers all said that a high level magic beast had arrived, so nobody went into the depths of the ravine to hunt or gather herbs and all worked at the ravine's valley. They definitely wouldn't take even one step into the inside that emitted fog in the morning. Once they heard these outsiders actually wanted, they naturally advised them repeatedly with kind intentions.
Claire and them thanked them for their kind intentions, but they had to enter the ravine, because going through the ravine was the fastest path. If they turned back and took a detour, they would be delayed by perhaps ten days. Naturally, they weren't willing to waste that time. It was just a high level magic beast, their group of people could handle it easily.
But could someone tell them what was going on?
Why was there a gigantic three-headed dragon amidst this thick fog?
The giant dragon seemed to be very angry, continuously roaring, attacking them with all its might. Claire and Yixuan Feng felt more and more strained as they guarded.
But soon, they discovered something off. From the very beginning that dragon stood at the same place while attacking, not going forward at all. Also, the dragon race was supposed to be very powerful, able to oppress humans. The pressure this dragon gave them was very little. At the very beginning, his attack was easily blocked by Claire's and Yixuan Feng's magic shield, something somewhat outrageous.
"Retreat back!" Claire and Yixuan Feng called out in a low voice at the same time. The small group of people retreated quickly, directly to Cliff's side. Cliff leisurely sat down below a tree, then saw everybody's sorry figures. It was then that he slowly said, "You finally found out that the dragon is imprisoned there."
Everyone was at a loss for words, all looking straight at Cliff and not saying anything.
This old fox; he had long before discovered a clue, but he sat here to watch the ruckus.
Everyone turned back to look at the black dragon amidst the fog. Sure enough, that black dragon was still there, not chasing over and all the fireballs, water arrows, and wind blades he produced also could only attack on the ground not far away from them.
Cliff stood up lazily, pulled out a wand, and then started chanting a spell. In that instant, a huge gale blew fiercely towards the colossal dragon. The next moment, the thick fog dispersed and the giant dragon's body appeared.
Around the giant black dragon on the ground in four directions were four pillars, half the height of a person. On all the pillars there was shiny ball of light. In the middle of all the balls of light were a chain of light. The four cables of light bounded the giant dragon firmly.