After a while, Yuan felt the pangs of hunger. "Xu'er, let's go and eat something," he said.
He knew she must be hungry as well. When he turned to check on her, however, he was left speechless.
She had a sliced apple in one hand while eating a peeled orange from the other. A retainer was dutifully standing behind her, peeling more oranges as she snacked. Yuan glanced at the retainer, who gave him an apologetic, helpless smile.
Clearly, everyone in the pavilion loved Xu'er and spoiled her to no end. Yuan sighed, a small smile forming on his lips as he shook his head.
"Brother, where are we going next?" Xu'er asked as she took another bite of fruit. Yuan simply picked her up again and began walking toward the exit of the pen. As they walked, he noticed Red standing in front of one of the cells, staring inside intently.
"Red, come. Let's go." Xu'er raised her head from his shoulder and said. Red gave Yuan a look but did not move a single step and kept staring at the small beast in the cell.
"What are you looking at?" Yuan asked, his curiosity piqued as he walked over to Red and peered inside the cell.
A small, silver-colored cub lay within. It was only about a foot tall, its fur a soft, shiny silver, clearly an infant. 'Is it a wolf or a fox?' he wondered.
After opening the cell, he picked the cub up and began looking at it curiously. Xu'er eyes widened with excitement when she saw the tiny silver beast. Without hesitation, she snatched it from Yuan and cradled it in her lap, her face lighting up with affection.
"Bring me a bowl of milk," Yuan ordered the retainer.
The retainer nodded and left. A few minutes later, he returned with a bowl of fresh milk.
Yuan placed the bowl of milk in front of the cub and turned toward his sister, "Xu'er, let it down," he said.
Xu'er carefully placed the little beast in front of the bowl. It hesitated for a moment before sniffing the milk. Then, slowly, it began to lap up the liquid. Yuan and Xu'er sat beside it, watching in silence as the small creature drank milk.
"Brother, it's so cute! Can we keep it?" she asked, her voice bubbling with enthusiasm.
Yuan smiled but wasn't quite sure yet. "Give me its evaluation report," Yuan said after a while.
The retainer handed him a piece of parchment. Yuan glanced over the document, the more he read, the more his brows furrowed. The report was simple, almost too simple, only an introduction.
Beast Type: Wolf
Gender: Male
Age: Infant (around 15 days to 1 month old)
Color: Silver (rare)
Grade: No star (Too young to evaluate)
Talent: Unknown
Element: Unknown
"Is it just an ordinary wild wolf?" Yuan thought. But something in his gut told him otherwise. Red's reaction to the cub was too strong to be coincidental.
"No," Yuan glanced at Red and thought, shaking his head. "This isn't an ordinary beast."
He handed the report back to the retainer. "Let's keep this tiny thing. Don't put it on the selling list. When Father returns, I'll have him evaluate it properly."
Xu'er eyes sparkled with joy. "Really, brother? Are we really keeping it?" she asked, bouncing with excitement.
Yuan nodded, smiling.
"Okay, we will call him 'Silver'," Xu'er declared happily, gently patting the cub.
This retainer standing behind her was lost for words. He felt the naming sense of this pair of siblings was off the chart.
Yuan named his pet 'Red' because it had red color hair and now Xu'er did the same. She named the silver-haired wolf 'Silver' because of its silver hair.
Just then, the cub finished its milk and slowly walked over to Yuan. It looked up at him with its bright, curious eyes, then raised its tiny head to nuzzle his hand. Yuan lowered his hand to pat the little cub, but without warning, it suddenly jumped up and bit Yuan's finger.
A sharp pain shot through his hand, and blood began to drip from the wound. Xu'er gasped in horror, her face turning pale. "Brother!" she cried. "I don't want it anymore! This is a bad wolf! We will sell it immediately!"
Silver licked the blood on his finger, and as soon as he did, Yuan felt dizzy and a connection was formed with Silver.
Retainer stepped forward to beat the wolf back, but Yuan stopped him.
Yuan's head was dizzy but he gently hugged her. "Okay, Okay. Don't cry. I am fine,"
He turned to Red, who had been watching the scene closely. "Red, take Silver to my room," Yuan ordered. Red gave him a long, thoughtful look but then obeyed, carrying the small cub in its jaws.
"No, brother! we can't keep it. It hurt you." Xu'er shouted as Yuan carried her away from the beast pen.
Yuan sighed, shaking his head. "Let's go talk to Mother. Maybe she can settle this."
"I will ask Mother to sell Silver", Xu'er huffed angrily.
Yuan walked to the fifth floor of the pavilion while carrying Xu'er. "Mom"
Mother Bing looked up from her work, a soft smile spreading across her face. "Ah, you're back. The food is almost ready. I'll have someone bring it up."
Mother Bing ordered the guard to bring food for three people.
"Mom, sell that bad wolf. It tried to hurt brother." Xu'er said to Mother Bing while pointing toward Yuan's injured finger.
Mother Bing raised an eyebrow as looked at his finger and saw teeth marks. "What happened?" She immediately took out a paste from somewhere, applied it on his finger, and wrapped it with a bandage.
Yuan quickly explained the situation, passing her the evaluation report for Silver and telling her how Red had reacted to the cub.
"Are you certain Red showed interest in Silver?" Mother Bing asked, her voice calm but curious.
"Yes, Mother", Yuan nodded.
Mother Bing fell silent, deep in thought. Red was no ordinary spiritual beast—it had remarkable intelligence as well as spiritual awareness.
Even Pavilion Master Menghao couldn't evaluate Red despite being a Grade 4 master-level Beast Evaluator. There are many different kinds of spiritual beasts all around the world, and nobody knows all of them except God.
They had thought as much, but Red shocked them time after time. They had no idea of its origin and with its shocking abilities, they knew it was no ordinary beast.