Every time Bai Qiu ascended a floor, he would try to communicate with the guarding monster, hoping to find a suitable one to form a contract with—preferably something with high agility.
That way, the trump card reins and high-level contract card in his possession wouldn’t just rot in his inventory.
A Yuan wasn’t suited for land movement, so Bai Qiu actually wanted to find a creature with both high endurance and agility to use as a mount.
It would make traveling much more convenient—and, more importantly, he thought it would look cool.
After all, for long-distance travel, he already had a C-rank Wind Spirit Hoverboard.
Crossing a thousand kilometers would only take him about two and a half hours.
The Bloodthirsty Unicorn on the 54th floor had seemed like a great option.
Unfortunately, it was completely consumed by its bloodthirsty killing intent.
There was no way to form a contract with it.
Even though its agility had reached B- and its size was perfect—making it an ideal mount—Bai Qiu still had no choice but to kill it.
He had once wondered why his luck was so bad, yet he still managed to successfully contract A Yuan.
Later, he learned that A Yuan had genuinely submitted to him at the time, offering no resistance whatsoever—that was why the contract succeeded.
So for the high-level contract card in his hand to work on a Transcendent-level creature, the other party had to be just like A Yuan—willing to sincerely submit to him.
Because of this, Bai Qiu didn’t even bother using the high-level contract card on monsters that attacked him first or showed aggression.
He knew it wouldn’t work.
“I wonder if it’s still the same one on the 55th floor…” Bai Qiu muttered to himself as he stepped onto the next level.
From the 50th floor onward, none of the monsters he encountered were repeats.
It was almost certain that these were real, living Transcendent creatures.
The system had transported them—along with parts of their original ecological environments—into the Tower, turning them into guardians of each floor.
“Roar?” Hearing the familiar sound and sensing a familiar aura, Bai Qiu smiled.
The 55th floor still had that Black Crystal Mutated Rock Turtle.
The moment the turtle saw Bai Qiu—this living nightmare—its heart skipped a beat.
Worse still, he was holding something even more terrifying than the weapon he had used last time to stab out one of its eyes…
It immediately turned and fled in panic.
But with only D-rank movement speed, how could it possibly outrun Bai Qiu?
He caught up to it in no time.
“Roar… roar…” Realizing Bai Qiu had already caught up in the blink of an eye, the Black Crystal Mutated Rock Turtle stopped and let out low, pleading growls.
It knew very well that if the man in front of it wanted to kill it, there was no escape and no way to resist.
So it chose to beg for mercy, hoping Bai Qiu might spare it again like last time.
Then it noticed—Bai Qiu wasn’t holding a weapon, nor was he emitting any killing intent.
Confused, it cautiously lifted its head to glance at him.
Bai Qiu gently patted its head and said in a calm voice, “How about following me? You’ll not only get out of here, but you’ll also keep your life.”
Aside from its stats and skills, Bai Qiu actually quite liked this Black Crystal Mutated Rock Turtle, since it hadn’t attacked him first.
Though honestly, if he used it as a mount, it’d be more for taking leisurely strolls than anything else.
The speed of the Wind Spirit Hoverboard far surpassed it, but even so, this was the first Transcendent creature Bai Qiu had encountered in the Tower that hadn’t attacked him on sight.
So Bai Qiu decided to use this Contract Space Card—subdue it first, then continue climbing the tower.
When he later encountered a more emotionally stable monster, he could simply exit the Tower and come back next time to capture it…
Although it couldn’t understand Bai Qiu’s words, the moment its turtle head touched the high-level contract card in his hand, a flood of information poured into its mind, allowing it to fully grasp his intentions.
“Roar…” Still, as it looked at the rocks covering the ground, it felt reluctant.
This environment was what it relied on to survive.
If it followed Bai Qiu, it might never get to eat these delicious stones again.
Sensing its concern, Bai Qiu took out a piece of Star Iron Ore and handed it over.
The Black Crystal Mutated Rock Turtle sniffed it, and its eyes instantly lit up.
It cautiously glanced at Bai Qiu, and under his friendly gaze, carefully picked up the ore in its mouth.
“Crunch, crunch, crunch…” True to its nature as a stone-eating creature, it could even chew through the famously tough Star Iron Ore.
To it, it was merely a bit chewy.
After finishing the ore, the turtle let out a delighted cry.
Without needing any prompting, it hurried over on its short legs and tapped the high-level contract card with its head.
“Contract initiating… Contract successful!”
Everything happened so fast and felt so surreal that Bai Qiu couldn’t react in time.
So… did the Black Crystal Mutated Rock Turtle contract him, or did he contract the turtle?
Confused as he was, the moment the system opened the passage to the next floor, he understood.
After the 50th floor, the system had given players a choice—kill, or subdue.
High-Level Contract Card Bound Target:
Black Crystal Mutated Rock Turtle (Level 31)
Bloodline: Monarch-tier
Loyalty: 70
Affinity: 60
Description: As long as it’s fed and housed, it will obediently follow you. However, the memory of having one of its eyes stabbed out still leaves a lingering shadow toward you.
Though not as cute as A Yuan, it was still a decent catch.
After confirming everything, Bai Qiu noticed that the staircase leading to the 56th floor had no reward.
“Figures. If nothing is killed, the system can’t decompose a corpse to extract materials as Transcendent rewards. Come to think of it… giving only some flesh or high-grade materials after killing these guardians really makes the system seem like a sly middleman,” Bai Qiu muttered.
Suddenly, as if thinking of something, he immediately took out the Dragon-Slaying Star Breath Spear, causing the turtle to shrink its head in fright.
Bai Qiu leapt into the air and hurled the spear downward with force, smashing the rock-solid ground into a crater several meters wide.
“Ding! Obtained Adamant Rock (Quality: C++) ×114!”
Seeing the system notification, Bai Qiu’s face lit up with joy.
He quickly rose into the air again, waiting for the Wind-Gathering trait to fully enhance the spear.
Was this a joke?
Taming the turtle was great and all—but if he had to feed it Star Iron Ore every day, he’d go broke!
He had to dig up enough food for it within five minutes!
As the Wind-Gathering trait reached its peak, currents of wind energy wrapped around the spear.
While infusing it with magic, Bai Qiu also used his wind-control skill to carve out a dedicated throwing path.
With full force, he hurled the spear again!
“Boom!” A crater far larger than before exploded outward.
With a raise of his hand, the Dragon-Slaying Star Breath Spear flew back instantly, and he began repeating the process…
The Black Crystal Mutated Rock Turtle had no idea why Bai Qiu had suddenly gone mad, bombarding the ground relentlessly.
But since he deliberately threw the spear far away from it to avoid frightening it, the turtle gradually calmed down after noticing this…
With only twenty seconds left on the countdown, Bai Qiu hurried down to collect the Adamant Rock.
— The end of the Chapter–
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