Upon hearing this, the men from Ironfang Village smiled, laughed, and howled with joy. They, a weak and insignificant clan whose highest-ranked warrior was a peak Mortal qi refiner, would have a Transcendent lifeform as their village guardian.
The beast quickly hissed again, clearly not willing to submit. Its pride as a Fierce Beast would seemingly not allow it.
"Oh, you won't submit," Kai said as he started to squeeze with his paw, even using some of his claw dao to more frighten the beast.
The newly minted Transcendent lifeform had never come across the dao before, but its status as a Fierce beast gave it enough inherited memories to have an idea of what it was, so it quickly began to behave itself.
"That's better," Kai said, loosening his grip.
"Now speak," Kai commanded.
"I'll submit, I'll submit," the beast cried.
Kai smiled at this, then looked down at the group of men who, upon meeting his gaze, quickly quit smiling and were a little fearful.
"My second brother wanted me to save you, so I saved you. Why aren't you thanking my second brother?" Kai said in a serious tone. He liked playing with these backwater villagers very much; it was much more fun than walking through the marsh all day.
The entire hunting party quickly dropped to their knees, and with a thump, all their heads quickly hit the ground as they bowed toward Silas.
"We thank the young master!" "We thank the young master!" they all said.
Silas just sighed and looked over at Kai, who was clearly enjoying himself. He could feel through their bond the pure amusement he was getting from this. Not wanting to ruin Kai's fun, especially since he was the hero of the day, Silas quickly said, "That's enough, my third brother was the one who saved you, and even captured you a Transcendent lifeform as your new village's guardian. Shouldn't you thank him instead?"
Kai's chest, upon hearing this, swelled up, and he started to look down even more on these lowly humans.
"We thank the young masters!" "We thank the young masters!" they all yelled.
"Good, very good," Kai said with a nod of his head.
"You," he pointed to one of the men, "speak, who is your leader?"
The man quickly pointed to Thorne Ironhide, not daring to disobey Kai, "He's our leader."
Kai then turned his gaze to Thorne. He was a large man, about 35 years old, with scars all over his body. He looked like a battle-hardened warrior.
"You, quickly come tame this beast. I'm tired of holding it," Kai said.
The man quickly ran forward. Then, once he was in front of the beast, he just stood there. He quickly glanced at Kai and then at Silas, "I'm sorry, young master, but… but I don't know how."
Kai just began to laugh.
This sent a shiver down the man's spine. Was he going to die now for wasting this being's time, or worse, would he kill the beast out of frustration? This beast was going to be his village's lifeline. With this beast, they could finally become an official clan and start growing their tribe.
Silas, seeing the man's fear, quickly said, "Kai, quit playing with the man."
Kai just frowned and looked at Silas for a moment, "Fine," he said.
"Little kitty, start the process, and it better not be a bond of equals," he said with a little shake of his paw.
"Yes, yes," the black panther quickly said as he started the process.
A minute later, the man was standing beside the majestic black panther as he gazed at its beauty. He walked over to the beast and brushed his hand down its side, still somewhat afraid the beast would suddenly attack.
"He's your slave now, so don't be so scared," Kai said as he shrunk down to his normal size, then jumped onto the back of the beast and laid down on his back, propping his feet up on its head and starting to relax.
Silas then walked down closer to the group and said, "Cat, speak, where are the other Transcendent lifeforms in the area?"
The black panther, even though it didn't have to listen to Silas's orders, only Thorne's, didn't dare refuse. It quickly started to list off every beast's last known location, with even rumors thrown in the mix of where they might head to or could possibly be.
"Turn into your human form and mark it down on the map," Silas said as he tossed his map down on a nearby rock.
The beast was now in a dilemma. The second brother and the one that seemed to be in charge had told him to transform to human form, but the much scarier third brother was currently lazing about on his back.
Silas, seeing the beast's conundrum, sent Kai a message, "Quit giving the beast such a hard time."
Kai, with a harrumph, jumped down and propped himself up against a tree.
The black panther then transformed into its human form and marked down all the locations it knew of.
"Very good," Silas said with a nod as he gave the map a glance over.
"Now you," he began to talk to Thorne, "mark down your village's location on the map."
Thorne quickly obeyed, and Silas then said, "Kai, Red, you two go back with them. I'm going to go hunt a beast or two, then I want to go see what this village is like." Seeing these poor villagers made him think back to his previous life, and now he wanted to go check out their village and look back on some of his fond memories.
"Alright," Red said.
"You got it, boss," Kai said as he hopped back on the of the black panther.
***
Twelve hours later, Silas stood alone in the Silverscale Marsh as he looked around for the Silverscale Serpent that was in control of this area. Based on his clan's reports, as well as the black panther's, this beast was suspected to be an early Transcendent lifeform.
After a little more walking around, he finally managed to sense some movement on his left.
'Could this be it?' Silas thought. This wouldn't be the first time he had this thought, with him already having killed multiple Mortal Silverscale Serpents, but he could always hope.
He quickly turned his head as he summoned his scythe.
"Bang!" He blocked the snake at the last moment from taking his head off.
'Definitely a Transcendent lifeform,' Silas thought as he reeled back from the beast's attack.
He then finally got a look at the 20-meter-long beast.
[Silverscale Serpent (Beast) - Qi Cultivation: Early Transcendent - Body Cultivation: Early Transcendent]
"Hisssssss!" The snake was furious it had missed the kill. How could a mere Mortal lifeform withstand its attack?
Silas smiled at the beast, and without any words spoken between them, he began his attack.
"Whoosh!" He flashed forward, his steps not impeded in the slightest by the marsh.
"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Shing!" Silas attacked four times, three of which were decently blocked, but one managed to cut deep.
"Hissss!!" "Human, how dare you enter this place!" the snake yelled.
"Why wouldn't I dare?" Silas calmly said back.
"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Shing!"
Silas continued his attack, but the snake blocked most of his blows with its hardened tail. It too had long since reached mastery level in both movement and weapon comprehension.
"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"
"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"
"Shing!" "Shing!"
Silas at first struggled to keep up with the much faster and more powerful beast, but the more he fought, the stronger he got, and the more he comprehended both his own weapon mastery and the snake's attack style.
"Shing!" "Shing!" Silas smiled at the beast, "You're getting predictable."
"Shut up and die!" the snake yelled as it sent another attack.
"Whoosh!" Silas quickly dodged to the side.
"Shing!" He got another attack in. At this point, he was toying with the beast. He was no longer getting any comprehension from the beast, so it had lost its value.
"Shing!" "Shing!" "Shing!" With three quick attacks, he killed it.
"Thanks for the fight," he said as he put the beast into his spatial ring.
"Hmm?" Silas quickly noticed a silver bracer and bent down to pick it up.
It was a spatial treasure. "It looks like I have something to give to Kai."
Silas then pulled out his map and looked for a nearby beast.
"You it is," he said after making his pick.