Volume One, Chapter 46: It Seems There’s No Loss—A Faint Control Over the Unknown Beast Maiden!

The treasure hall within the rose barrier resembled a labyrinth extending in all directions.
After entering the treasure hall, many beast tamers quickly vanished from sight.
At first, Lin Yao had considered scattering his thirty-two shadow werewolves to scout various paths.
However, shortly after entering the grand hall, he discovered that the double-winged golden cicada actually knew the way!

Curious, Lin Yao asked the double-winged golden cicada, "How do you know the way here?"
"Hehe!" The double-winged golden cicada let out a crafty chuckle and said,
"Master, among the safe box that Lv Hongbo and the others picked up, there was a mass of pure energy. I swallowed that mass of pure energy.
And then, a memory of the route map regarding this treasure hall suddenly appeared in my mind."

Initially, Lin Yao thought the double-winged golden cicada had relied on its innate talent.
To his surprise, as a tamed beast, it had actually stolen a beast tamer's opportunity!
This prompted Lin Yao to seriously consider whether he should take some coercive measures against the double-winged golden cicada.

At first, the double-winged golden cicada was somewhat smug.
Yet, it soon realized that it had just spoken out of turn.
By the time the double-winged golden cicada realized this, it was obviously too late.
A contract seal had already materialized in Lin Yao's palm.

This contract seal was a slave contract seal, which held the strongest binding force over tamed beasts.
Lin Yao felt that this double-winged golden cicada was far too cunning.
It would be much better to bind it with a slave contract.

"Master, spare my life!"
Seeing the slave contract seal in Lin Yao's hand descending upon it, the double-winged golden cicada could only plead for mercy.
Xia Yumeng seemed to be completely at odds with this little creature.
Taking pleasure in its misfortune, she spoke up:
"Darling, you did the right thing!
A cunning tamed beast like this deserves to be bound by the strongest slave contract.
Otherwise, we wouldn't even know when it stabbed us in the back!"

The double-winged golden cicada immediately cried out in grievance:
"I'm wronged, I'm wronged! How could I possibly do such a thing?"
However, its wailing had no effect whatsoever.
With extreme decisiveness, Lin Yao pressed the slave contract seal directly into the double-winged golden cicada's body.

Throughout the journey that followed, the double-winged golden cicada transformed into a veritable Xianglin Sao.
While flying ahead to lead the way, it kept muttering incessantly.
"Ah! I was truly foolish! Truly!"
"I only knew that my covert absorption of the pure energy had deceived the previous beast tamer, completely failing to anticipate that the current master would hold me accountable as well!"

Seeing it fall into such miserable straits, Xia Yumeng was immensely amused.
Xia Mengying also smiled wryly, feeling that this tamed beast was simply too comical.
Zhu Zhihan, with absolute innocence, delivered a fatal blow:
"Double-winged golden cicada, actually, if you had voluntarily asked Big Brother to sign a slave contract with you at the beginning, Big Brother would have just signed a symbiosis contract with you instead!
My situation back then was far worse than yours! Yet when I asked Big Brother to sign a slave contract with me, Big Brother directly signed a symbiosis contract with me!"

Hearing this, the double-winged golden cicada turned back to glance at Zhu Zhihan.
It thought to itself, "Could that possibly be the same? Your grandpa here is a golden cicada, not a beautiful beast maiden!"
Of course, giving the double-winged golden cicada ten times its courage, it still wouldn't dare to voice these words aloud.
It could only continue repeating its earlier murmurings:
"Ah! I was truly foolish..."

The double-winged golden cicada was not allowed to babble for long this time.
Lin Yao suddenly spoke up: "Stop for a moment, there is a problem ahead!"
Hearing this, the double-winged golden cicada was startled into a sharp shiver.
It hurriedly defended itself:
"Master, I only have the route map of this place in my mind, nothing else! I absolutely have no intention of plotting against you!"

Lin Yao nodded. "I know. Besides, you are walking at the very front of the group. If I hadn't discovered the problem in advance, you would have been the first one to die a moment ago."
The double-winged golden cicada was instantly frightened out of its wits by Lin Yao's words.
Xia Mengying and the others also looked at Lin Yao curiously, wanting to know what had happened.
The Shen brothers in the rear cast their gazes upon Liang Xiaofei.

Liang Xiaofei shook his head. "This treasure hall has a suppressing effect on my talent. My Heaven-Sight and Earth-Hearing ability cannot see very far here."
Once Liang Xiaofei said this, the two members of the Shen family could only wait for Lin Yao to brief them and the rest of the group on the specific situation ahead.

Lin Yao did not keep them waiting long, nor did he beat around the bush, stating directly:
"There is an extremely spacious hall ahead. The beast maiden mentioned by the double-winged golden cicada is lying quietly upon a jade bed inside that hall.
However, there is a problem with that hall. Once someone steps into it rashly, they will immediately fall victim to its trap.
What will happen to high-level beast tamers and tamed beasts if they enter, I cannot say for sure.
However, beast tamers and tamed beasts around level 20 will definitely drop dead instantly if they rashly enter that hall!"

Hearing Lin Yao say this, the expressions of everyone present turned somewhat grim.
With traps existing that meant certain death upon entry, the treasure hall they were currently exploring was far more dangerous than ordinary ruins.

There was a reason why Lin Yao could discover the fatal danger in the front hall.
One of his shadow werewolves had almost died just a moment ago.
The moment that shadow werewolf stepped into the hall, it instantly suffered fatal consumption that exceeded its capacity to bear.
Fortunately, the other thirty-one shadow werewolves shared the damage with it, which prevented that particular shadow werewolf from dying on the spot.

Upon learning that the hall ahead was extremely dangerous, the double-winged golden cicada immediately wanted no part of it.
It was not a beast tamer, after all, and beast maidens held no attraction for it whatsoever.
Even if there were a female double-winged golden cicada in that place, it would still be unwilling to go over under such dangerous circumstances.
The double-winged golden cicada immediately suggested to Lin Yao:
"Master, it's too dangerous over there, let's not go over.
Since this treasure hall is so vast, it'll be the same if we go search for treasures elsewhere."

Lin Yao shook his head and refused. "I'm not clear about the situation in other areas. However, there are indeed some good things along this route.
Furthermore, the dangers on this path have already been scouted by me. As long as we don't enter the hall where the beast maiden lies dormant, everything will be fine."

At this moment, Lin Yao had basically shared all the intelligence that everyone needed to know.
Yet, there was still some intelligence related only to himself that he kept to himself.
That hall where the beast maiden slumbered seemed to have some sort of devouring formation set up within it.
Any living creature that rashly stepped into it would be ruthlessly devoured and refined.
His shadow werewolf had almost been instantly drained dry.
However, under the effect of his [Damage Sharing] talent, that shadow werewolf did not die.
Even so, his thirty-two shadow werewolves now possessed only the combined energy pool of thirty-one shadow werewolves.

At first glance, it seemed he had suffered a loss this time.
Although his shadow werewolves had not lost any headcount, none of them were at full status anymore.
Yet Lin Yao believed that he probably hadn't lost at all.
Because shadow energy could not be converted, it could be fused.
Once that dormant beast maiden fused with the shadow energy contained within one shadow werewolf, he would be able to control that beast maiden just as easily as he controlled his shadow werewolves!