Chapter Sixty-Five: World of Magical Beasts

“Hehe! Boss, you’re hilarious. I’ve never even heard of any so-called alternate dimension!” AK47 looked even more surprised than Chu Tian.

“Then where did Anderson summon you from last time?” Chu Tian was baffled. No matter how clever he was, he couldn’t have predicted what AK47 was about to say.

“From my home, of course.” AK47 replied as though it were the most natural thing in the world, even looking a bit shy. “I was actually taking a bath when that scoundrel Anderson summoned me!”

“Your home?!” Chu Tian was completely confused now. Since when do magical beasts have homes?

“Yes, my home!” AK47 replied with a sweet smile. “But boss, your place is much nicer than my old dump, and you pay me more gold coins…”

“Wait a minute!” Chu Tian suddenly realized he’d been ignoring something important. What would a magical beast want with gold coins? “What do you do with all the gold coins I give you?”

“A girl needs gold coins to buy clothes and jewelry, of course!” AK47 gave Chu Tian an incredulous look, as if she was surprised by his sudden naïveté. “Look, these are the ones I bought.” As she spoke, she conjured a sheer scarf from thin air and draped it over her shoulders like a magician performing a trick.

“Uncle, I used the gold coins you gave me to buy toys.” Humvee chimed in innocently, giving Chu Tian a sweet smile. Then, with a flick of his long trunk, there was a thud—a giant leather ball, taller than Chu Tian himself, suddenly fell from the sky. Humvee scooped the ball up with his trunk and began bouncing it around.

The gap between imagination and reality utterly toppled Chu Tian’s understanding. If magical beasts that could take human form needed gold coins to buy clothes and toys, at least that made some sense. But what about those below the ninth tier…

“Boss, didn’t Mr. Anthony ever tell you about any of this?” Barbossa approached, looking equally incredulous. “Just like humans, high-tier magical beasts have their own world!”

With Barbossa and the other beasts all speaking at once, Chu Tian finally began to understand why the current history of the Continent of Illusory Beasts was called the Age of Magical Beasts.

Magical beasts were divided into ten tiers by power. From the fourth tier up, they possessed intelligence, and those above the seventh tier not only spoke human tongues but had intelligence equal to—or even surpassing—humans. In truth, high-tier magical beasts were less like beasts and more like genuine sentient races.

As sentient beings, high-tier magical beasts naturally behaved much like humans, forming their own set of rules—such as the requirement that lower-tier beasts must show due respect to those above them.

However, most of the intelligence of high-tier magical beasts was devoted to increasing their own power. Despite their great strength, they were not particularly skilled at producing luxury goods. Yet, just like AK47, they knew that human luxuries were precious and desirable, so they wanted them too.

A thousand years ago, mighty sentient magical beasts appeared on the Continent of Illusory Beasts and began to plunder humans and other sentient races. Unfortunately for them, they were no match for humanity. After organized human counterattacks, most high-tier magical beasts ultimately yielded and retreated to remote forests and mountains. Still, their desire for luxury goods remained undiminished. Thus, a peculiar relationship developed between high-tier magical beasts and other sentient races: magical beasts worked for humans, helping them win battles, and in return, humans paid them in gold coins and luxury items. This was the kind of equal contract AK47 had once signed.

With gold coins in hand, magical beasts needed places to spend them. So, a class of merchants specializing in trade with magical beasts emerged across the continent. The first to think of this business was the founding king of the mercantile kingdom of Scott. AK47’s clothes and jewelry, as well as Humvee’s toys, were all purchased at the foot of Mount Agula—a highly developed market thanks to the presence of the dragon race, though Chu Tian had never noticed it.

Over a thousand years, relations between high-tier magical beasts and humans grew ever more complex. Take the Pampas family, for instance—they smuggled magical beasts, but where did those beasts come from? Some were raised by humans, but the vast majority were sold by profit-seeking high-tier magical beasts themselves.

Chu Tian had always misunderstood the magical beasts of the Continent of Illusory Beasts, thinking of them as lesser animals compared to humans. In reality, high-tier magical beasts were fully sentient beings, equal to humans. They had families, friends, and some—even like the dragons of Mount Agula—had their own kingdoms.

AK47 originally lived near Misty Lake. Even after signing an equal contract with Anderson and becoming his magical pet, she still lived at home most of the time, only traveling to Anderson’s side through a spatial magic portal when summoned by the contract.

“So it was a spatial magic portal, not an alternate dimension!” Chu Tian’s face flushed with embarrassment for the first time in ages. “So, without a contract, you can’t be summoned through the portal?”

“That’s right, boss!” Barbossa fulfilled his duty as magical advisor. “But summoning magical beasts through a spatial portal is very harmful to them! That’s why it’s rarely used on the continent. You’d best avoid it too, boss.”

“Yeah, every time I went through that portal, I nearly shed my skin!” AK47 complained bitterly, clearly still haunted by the experience.

“Alright, I won’t use it anymore.” Chu Tian casually took AK47’s contract from his ring and tossed it to the beautiful spider. “Here, you keep this.”

“Hehe! Thank you, boss!” AK47 suddenly lifted Chu Tian with her slender spider legs, leaned over, and planted a firm kiss on his cheek. “Oh my, I’m so happy—I’ve never had such a great boss!”

Returning the contract to AK47 was no impulsive gesture. As someone from the modern world, Chu Tian didn’t believe he could bind a high-tier magical beast with nothing but a piece of parchment. During his duel with Anderson, AK47 had abandoned her master and fled under Dama’s threats, proving the contract was far less powerful than it seemed. Chu Tian only believed in one thing: mutual benefit. Only interests aligned with his own could truly win the loyalty of high-tier magical beasts.

“So what should we do about Boeing 747 now?” Although he now understood the magical beasts better, he still hadn’t solved the problem of insufficient space. So, after escaping AK47’s enthusiastic embrace, Chu Tian asked with a troubled brow, “We can’t just have her flying in the sky forever, can we?”

“Boss, you could send her to the base outside the city for now,” the usually taciturn NMD suddenly spoke up, his massive serpentine form coiled in the air as he brought his great dragon head down to Chu Tian. “Then buy her a magical communication stone. If anything comes up, with Boeing 747’s speed, she’ll be at your side in no time.”

“Praise the Goddess of Life! NMD, you’re a genius!” In fact, Chu Tian had just thought of the same solution, but sometimes it was good to let subordinates shine. Patting NMD’s chin, Chu Tian declared heartily, “Double pay for you today!”

“Thank you, boss!” NMD replied calmly, lifting his dragon head back to the sky. Chu Tian could only sigh. Of all his magical beasts, NMD was the quietest, sometimes going an entire day without a word. Clearly, he still hadn’t escaped the shadow of Mount Agula.

“Hahaha! Boss, your brother is here!” Just as Chu Tian was wondering how much a communication stone would cost, a familiar, boisterous laugh rang out—signaling the arrival of Reggie, the God of Wealth.