Chapter 12 – Obtaining the Domain

Su Ming cut her finger and completed the contract once her blood fused with the Vermilion Bird’s.

Vermilion Bird: “Master, wouldn’t it be better to change back to your male form? The military should be able to detect this place soon.”

Su Ming watched as the Vermilion Bird’s flames continuously burned away the ghostly qi here. Once the ghostly qi dropped below a certain level, this place would become detectable by the backend.

Su Ming: “Then, Vermilion Bird, please receive my energy first.”

The Vermilion Bird’s heart trembled, and she hastily tried to dissuade her: “No… don’t call me ‘lord,’ that’s too terrifying. Call me anything else. If nothing else works, I have a nickname—Xiao Hong. Call me that.”

Su Ming didn’t understand, but considering that the one before her was once one of the Four Sacred Beasts, what exactly was going on with this situation now?

System: “The Vermilion Bird’s origin has been severely damaged. A seal was set up back then to protect her, but it also suppressed the recovery of her origin. The moment her origin fully recovers, she can return to the sacred beast rank.”

Su Ming: “Is that so? But how do I help her recover?”

System: “You may use Blood Soul Ghost’s One Heart One Body to aid recovery, or you may find an extremely powerful source of fire to heal her wounds.”

Su Ming thought it over. Finding fire seemed like it wouldn’t be too easy. She’d ask Blood Soul Ghost if she was willing later.

Su Ming said to the Vermilion Bird: “Xiao Hong, come receive my energy. Use it to recover from your injuries.”

The Vermilion Bird was still worried: “Will this harm Master’s cultivation?”

Su Ming: “What’s there to be afraid of? I can’t cultivate anyway. Alright, alright, stop worrying about all that.”

Though the Vermilion Bird was puzzled, she still prepared herself to receive the energy.

Just like last time, Su Ming poured all her energy into the Vermilion Bird in one go.

The Vermilion Bird felt this incredibly vast amount of energy. She never expected her master to already be this powerful—she was truly moved.

Then Su Ming transformed back into her original body. Say what you will, but that original body was much more handsome.

The Vermilion Bird was stunned for a moment, then immediately understood that this was her master’s male form. She could feel that her strength was still at the Seventh Realm, but her origin had recovered somewhat.

But the biggest problem now was—what exactly was her master’s name?

…

Meanwhile, the backend had completely erupted into chaos. They never expected the Vermilion Bird’s seal to have been broken. The Flood Dragon had already fled, which could only mean the Vermilion Bird had fallen into someone else’s hands.

The saint and saintess of the Heavenly Saint Sect were also observing from the backend, but the Vermilion Bird had appeared for a moment and then vanished without a trace.

Company Commander: “Looking at it now, there are two possibilities. One, someone took the Vermilion Bird and is hiding her very well. Two, the Vermilion Bird somehow escaped on her own.”

Guo Dong: “Who could possibly take down the Vermilion Bird? That Flood Dragon was so strong—it’s impossible.”

The company commander was puzzled. He had long since detected through his instruments that Sword Ghost was at Peak Eighth Realm, but Sword Ghost had been out there slaughtering wildly all along. So who else could have taken on the Flood Dragon?

A soldier reported: “Company Commander, Student Su Ming has already broken into the domain.”

Principal: “Huh? Wasn’t Su Ming following Du Liang the whole time?”

Looking at the surveillance, Du Liang and the others had somehow already reached the domain’s perimeter. Their speed was almost absurdly fast.

Soldier: “For some reason, the signal sources of Du Liang and Su Ming reached the domain’s outskirts in an instant. They are currently launching a fierce assault on the domain at Peak Eighth Realm strength.”

Company Commander: “Then it seems it wasn’t the Sword Ghost that attacked the Flood Dragon. If he had just finished fighting the Flood Dragon, would he still have the strength to take on a domain?”

Principal: “Given the Sword Ghost’s strength, aside from the lord of the Sixth Realm inside, who could withstand a single blow from him? Even weakened, he could still fight.”

Company Commander pointed at the Armor Breaker unleashed by the Sword Ghost: “Can he still unleash a big move while weakened?”

Soldier: “Company Commander, the people over there report that the Sword Ghost belongs to Su Ming, and the domain has already been taken by Su Ming.”

Company Commander: “Can you check when the attack started?”

Soldier: “From the moment Du Liang and Su Ming arrived, it took five minutes and thirty-one seconds to capture it.”

The principal was so shocked he could barely speak. Fortunately, Su Ming had controlled the Sword Ghost and hadn’t attacked the students—otherwise, wouldn’t that have been dangerous?

…

At this moment, Du Liang and the chef ghosts were a bit bewildered. They had been inexplicably teleported here, then watched the Sword Ghost inexplicably slaughter everything, and then Su Ming suddenly appeared…

Su Ming: “Alright, Fatty, there’s still plenty of energy left in the crystal stones. We can use it again next time.”

Du Liang: “Brother Su, did you teleport us here?”

Su Ming: “That’s right. From now on, Fatty, you can nurture any ghosts you have here, but spirit beasts won’t work—the ghostly qi here is too dense.”

The Chef Ghost Leader was overjoyed to hear this. He hadn’t expected that the boss would promise them a domain to develop yesterday and actually deliver on it today.

Su Ming watched the Chef Ghost Leader’s excitement: “Go on, go on. From now on, this will be our mobile fortress. I can come over with just a thought, so you all can focus on cooking.”

Hearing this, the chef ghost swarm happily set up camp on the spot and set up their pots…

At that moment, the Company Commander arrived: “Student Su Ming, congratulations on capturing this ghost domain. You must have a domain talent, right?”

Su Ming looked at him, everything going according to his expectations…

About twenty minutes ago, the system had given Su Ming the reward from the previous spirit beast domain. Su Ming placed the Vermilion Bird in the spirit beast domain to heal, so no matter who tested Su Ming’s body, they wouldn’t find any trace of the Vermilion Bird.

Now the problem was clearing himself of suspicion. Since his Sword Ghost was definitely the only combat power capable of matching the Flood Dragon, he had to make the Sword Ghost do something big.

The system told Su Ming that there was a ghost domain here and gave her the location.

Su Ming teleported Du Liang, the Sword Ghost, and the others to the ghost domain. With the Sword Ghost’s strength, the ghosts inside were nothing but easy prey. Sweeping through the domain at lightning speed naturally diverted suspicion away from him.

The Company Commander remained doubtful: “Student Su Ming, why are you here?”

Su Ming didn’t know why, but she just felt like smiling: “Isn’t it obvious? With my domain talent, I wanted to find a domain, right?”

Company Commander: “Then where did you get that Sword Ghost?”

Su Ming could barely hold back her laughter: “Actually, I found it. Believe it or not.”

What Su Ming said wasn’t wrong—he really did find it. Somewhere, the Ice Crystal Turtle, still asleep, suddenly dreamed again of being thrown at the Sword Ghost by his master as a projectile…

The Company Commander wore an expression that said “Do I look like I believe you?” But Su Ming really didn’t look like she was lying…

Company Commander: “Then did you see the Flood Dragon?”

Su Ming pointed at the huge hole in the protective barrier above: “Are you talking about the one that broke through the barrier?”

The Company Commander looked up. He had been careless—with all the commotion the Flood Dragon made, anyone who wasn’t asleep would have seen it.

Company Commander: “Then can you…”

The principal interrupted: “Company commander, there’s no need. I just detected Zhao Bei’s body inside, suspected to have been killed using a descent technique.”

Su Ming thought about it carefully now—it must have been deliberately left for her by that Black-Robed Man…

The company commander took out an agreement: “As we stated before the trial, whoever obtains the domain joins the military directly. Sign it.”

Su Ming looked at the agreement. The benefits included a squad to protect her, a monthly salary of ten thousand, and various cultivation resources…

The downside was that if war broke out, she would have to control the domain to serve the military.