Ch4 – Lonely Little Leopard

The tired little leopard once again went back to the comfortable and warm position under the black dragon’s arm, closing his eyes to sleep. The weight of the black dragon’s wide palm on his back was surprisingly reassuring. He felt that has hadn’t slept so safely in a long time.

The little leopard’s ears shook in his sleep and he vaguely saw some images. It was as if the things he experienced were blurred by a layer of yarn.

In this case, many people came and went around him and vague words entered his ears.

“Duke, the animal nucleus in the child’s head is much bigger than his kin. This suppresses his brain and causes natural deficiencies in his consciousness. He will become an animal and even the highest-grade pure energy stone can’t cure him. In the future, he will probably maintain his juvenile state for a long time. Even if he grows up, his mental state will be lacking.”

After this, the little leopard was taken away by an intelligent robot housekeeper. He lived in a house and everything was taken care of by this intelligent housekeeper. He didn’t see anyone for a long time and the housekeeper talked to him regularly, teaching him common sense. The process was naturally a one-sided indoctrination. Then he and the robot housekeeper spent a long time in a cool and inorganic room.

Until one day, the intelligent housekeeper received instructions to take the little leopard out of the house they had lived in for so long and board a small aircraft. In the beginning, the destination of the aircraft was set to the imperial capital. Somehow, the intelligent housekeeper suddenly modified the destination halfway through. It changed to this planet and they landed here. The housekeeper left him here, leaving him with lots of nutrient packs in the cracks between rocks.

The quiet and mechanical voice spoke to the little leopard. “The imperial capital is dangerous and I can’t take you there. You will have to live on your own in the future.”

Then the intelligent housekeeper stretched out his robotic arms and touched the leopard’s head before piloting the aircraft away.

The lonely little leopard wandered around this strange place, lost his way, rolled down from a high place and his head slammed into the tree that contained the huge bird’s nest. The impact moved the beast nucleus in his head, forcing the ignorant little leopard to break through his limits and his consciousness suddenly became clear…

At this time, the sleeping little leopard woke up. He slowly opened his eyes and raised his head from the arm of the black dragon. The clear-headed leopard stared at the small fire before covering his face with a paw and burying his head in it.

He couldn’t believe that in the many years after his rebirth, he had been a stupid little leopard. For a moment, the sorrowful leopard forgot that his claws were covered with ash for digging at the burned ground before and the leopard’s face became black.

The little leopard sighed as he gazed at the gradually whitening sky. He moved out of the black dragon man’s arm, took brisk steps and ran towards the huge stone crack in his memories. The distance wasn’t too close. He didn’t know how stupid he was at the time to wander so far.

Rong Mingshi took some time and finally arrived at the location. He watched the nutrient packs piled up in the crack in a satisfied manner. With these things, he probably didn’t need to work hard to hunt any prey for a long time. Rong Mingshi opened his mouth, picked up a few bags, flicked his tail and returned the way he came.

The little leopard went back and forth. As he was halfway there, he heard some sounds from the air. He looked up and saw an aircraft approaching his direction in the sky. Rong Mingshi was stunned for a while and a hint of doubt flashed in his eyes. This wasn’t the robot housekeeper returning, right?

He soon gave up this idea. The aircraft was really fast and it wasn’t heading in his direction. Instead, it headed to where the black dragon was lying on the ground. The aircraft gradually landed. The nutrient packs the little leopard was biting fell to the ground and his claws gripped the ground so he wasn’t blown away by the airflow coming from the aircraft.

Then Rong Mingshi watched as several people jumped out of the aircraft, quickly and skillfully bringing the black dragon man lying on the ground to the aircraft. Then the aircraft quickly rose into the sky, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

This process was so fast that the far-sighted leopard was dazed for a while. He stared at the sky while his nutrient packs had fallen.

This person was gone? There was a moment of loss deep inside Rong Mingshi. He thought he could stay for a while with the black dragon who slept with him for a night and took him from the bird’s nest at the top of the tree.

Since the person left, Rong Mingshi didn’t need to return to the previous location. Plus, he was only half full last night and now he was already hungry. The little leopard bowed his head, opened one of the nutrient packs and buried his head in it.

It was just that the taste of these nutrients was particularly poor. It felt like eating mud. The nutrient pack made by the robot housekeeper contained a variety of nutrients suitable for him but the taste wasn’t adjusted at all. After having a hard time eating the bag, the leopard decided to get the egg he previously saved.

Meanwhile, the aircraft had entered the space route and the accompanying doctor quickly dealt with the wounds on Aojia’s body. The treatment finished and a needle was injected into Aojia’s body.

“Doctor, what are the symptoms?” The guard Calant asked cautiously in a low voice.

The doctor frowned slightly with doubt. Their commanding officer’s recovery from his manic episode was much faster than last time.

The doctor looked at their commanding officer’s armband. This armband was originally the sturdiest and most sealed configuration on Aojia’s body. It was strong enough to resist the black dragon’s claws but when Aojia suppressed his mania, the armband was broken by him. Otherwise, the black dragon energy stone inside wouldn’t have fallen out.

The doctor reached out and opened the broken armband around Aojia’s left arm. Then he took out the black dragon energy stone that had been fixed by Rong Mingshi. For a moment, everyone around him was stunned. The beastmen of the empire were most familiar with energy stones since this was the only way to treat a beastman’s mania.

The energy stones were divided into three grades. There was a low-grade three coloured energy stone, a medium-grade two coloured energy stone and a high-grade solid colour energy stone. The higher the rating of the energy stone, the better the effect on the mania. Of course, the premise was that the energy stone was carved according to the beastman’s animal shape. For powerful beastmen like their commanding officer, the low and medium-grade energy stones had no effect. Only the high-grade energy stones could be useful.

However, the carving of the energy stone wasn’t a simple carving. Rather, it required a perceptual link to be established between the carver and energy stone, using perception to catalyze the power of the energy stone. The more thoroughly the perception was integrated, the more the power could be stimulated and the closer the carved energy stone would be to the beast form.

Therefore, there were two conditions necessary to be an energy stone carver. One was the art of carving and the other was perception. The higher the level of the energy stone, the stronger the perception needed. Few people could carve a high-grade solid colour energy stone and fewer carvers could mobilize the power of a high-level energy stone.

The energy stone in their commanding officer’s armband was something that could only be achieved by a master. Then what was this new energy stone obtained by their commanding officer? Thankfully there was this black dragon energy stone or their commanding officer’s injury might be more serious than the previous time.

People were marvelling at the skill of the master when Aojia suddenly opened his eyes. He looked around with sharp eyes and frowned when he didn’t see the little white beast.

“SIr!” The people present saluted. At the same time, the doctor handed over the black dragon energy stone in his hand. “Sir, this time your situation is much better than before. It is thanks to this master’s skills.”

Aojia took the energy stone and his pupils shrank slightly. This wasn’t the energy stone he got from the master. The size and shape were completely different but he could see that this was his previous stone. Aojia held the energy stone in his hand and asked, “What about the other person?”

“…” The people present glanced at each other. Who was he talking about?

“Where is the little leopard?”

“?” The people couldn’t understand what their leader was saying. None of the guards were leopards and besides, the commanding officer wouldn’t call them a little leopard.

Aojia took a deep breath. Then these people left the little leopard on the deserted star? Aojia glanced at them and got up, heading straight to the control room. Several guards and the doctor immediately followed. They saw their leader direct the pilot away from his seat and sat down. He turned the aircraft and once again headed for the previous star.

At this time, Rong Mingshi was stretching out his claws and digging at the pit where he left the bird egg he was going to give to the black dragon. Thus, when the aircraft returned, the little leopard’s face was particularly grey and he was almost plunged into the pit by the aircraft’s airflow.

Aojia came out of the aircraft and saw the poor and desolate little beast, staring at him with two starry blue leopard’s eyes.