1 Demon Tamer

It was the evening of a midsummer day!

"Phew, nearly there!" 

In the deepest parts of the mountain, the young man's eyes were glinting as sharply as an eagle's as he leisurely made his way forward. Despite running at a great speed, he effortlessly avoided the obstacles in his path and deftly glided through the forest. 

The scenery around him was rapidly changing. Yet, the young man was not the least bit disturbed by the complex terrain of the forest. 

His name was Li Changsheng. A long bluish-white robe draped his fair skin—he was a young, radiant Adonis in high spirits! 

In this corrupted world, a man as refined as he would undoubtedly receive plenty of attention from the budding young women. 

While Li Changsheng hurried along, the backpack on his back kept stirring. Although nearly inaudible, the tender roars of some animal's young seemed to be coming out from inside the bag, as though a living thing was trapped in the backpack and was struggling against the restraints. 

Roar! 

Without warning, an imposing and intense roar rang across the forest and sank the entire forest into a deafening silence. Countless animals that were previously lying dormant hastened to flee, as though anticipating the arrival of their sworn enemy. 

From a spot not far away, loud scraping sounds resonated from within a dense bush. Suddenly, a majestic White-fronted Tiger appeared from the bush. 

It was nearly ten feet tall and had a body length of almost five meters. The tiger's eyes were the size of copper bells and burned brightly as though it was searching for something. 

Hearing the rustling behind him, Li Changsheng felt his heart skip a beat, accompanied by a rapidly rising sense of urgency. However, instead of stopping, he ran even faster. 

Suddenly, the White-fronted Tiger landed on a large ten-foot-radius rock on the top of the mountain. The beast peered down on the vast forest that spanned beneath it as it scanned the area for its target. 

With a twinkle of its eyes, the White-fronted Tiger spotted Li Changsheng. The tiger's piercingly cold eyes emanated malicious intent. 

At that moment, its robust limbs started to exert a powerful force. The White-fronted Tiger leaped forward and demonstrated speed and agility that seemed incompatible with its gigantic body. It easily dodged the trees that came in its way. Its tail made a lot of noise as it flicked violently, sending branches and leaves flying with its reckless movements. 

The White-fronted Tiger closed the distance between it and Li Changsheng at lightning speed. 

As he heard the crashing sounds behind him creeping closer and closer, Li Changsheng felt a sense of bitterness rising in his heart. If he had a choice, he would not have voluntarily crossed paths with a White-fronted Tiger. 

For the sake of his mission, Li Changsheng spent a total of five days laying out a detailed plan. To ensure that everything went according to plan, he was willing to put his life on the line in the anticipation of the lucrative returns. 

Of course, even the most well-thought plans had its flaws. Li Changsheng could only do his best to cover up the loopholes and improvise as he moved along, praying that nothing unexpected would throw the entire plan into disarray. Otherwise, he might very well end up as tiger chow. 

Following the route that he prepared, Li Changsheng felt his spirits rise. His face flushed from excitement, he increased his speed by a few times. After all, how could he not pull out all the stops when an almost five-meter-long White-fronted Tiger was on his tail!

In the forest that was overgrown with greens and shrubs, the terrain was intricately complex. Li Changsheng had no choice but to use alternative routes many times. 

In the space of a few breaths, he managed to follow the trail that he marked and arrive at his destination. 

Not far from where he was, there were several neighboring trees that were severely crooked. The ground was littered with green leaves. On close inspection, one might notice several inconspicuous green vine ropes covered with leaves. 

The green vine ropes were rather tenacious. Since all of them were tied in slipknots, they formed plenty of loops that covered a vast area, leaving only a narrow route for safe passage. 

It was a slipknot trap created by exploiting the tension from the bent branches. The moment the quarry stepped onto the ropes, the ropes would tighten up immediately due to mechanical principles. Meanwhile, the slipknots would further tighten as the tree branches retracted, securing the prey in the trap. 

As he neared the trap, Li Changsheng slowed down and took quick, careful steps through this area. 

Soon enough, the White-fronted Tiger stepped into the trap. As it was dashing at full speed, it paid no attention to the ground and fell straight into the clutches of the slipknot trap. 

Before the White-fronted Tiger could move any further, the green vine ropes retracted immediately and tightened around its right front paw. 

At the same time, there was a sharp sound of air being sliced as the bent tree branches whiplashed, attempting to pull the White-fronted Tiger up into the air. 

Unfortunately, the White-fronted Tiger was too heavy. With a load that exceeded a ton, the rebound strength of the branches was not enough to string the tiger up. 

Nevertheless, the White-fronted Tiger's movements were restricted, and it was forced to halt its pursuit. With its right front paw yanked up in the air, it cut a rather embarrassing figure. It would not be able to continue chasing its prey for now. 

The White-fronted Tiger struggled instinctively in the hopes of escaping from the ropes. 

Sadly, the green vine ropes were too strong and sturdy. It would take quite some time for it to be able to escape the vine trap. 

Hearing the loud rustling behind him, the corners of Li Changsheng's mouth curved up into a smile. However, he did not think about turning back, nor did he have any intention to stop. He promptly increased the distance between him and the tiger. 

The reason was simple enough. The White-fronted Tiger was not an ordinary animal but one of the unique resources of this world—demons! 

This was a demonic world. Be it the skies, the ground, the sea, the volcanoes or the swamps—or any other horrible territories—demons lived everywhere. 

Demons emerged after shedding their physical form as living things, which included animals, plants, or even rocks and water droplets. Each demon had various special abilities that might have formed because of the rules that governed this side of the world. Over time, a unique occupation arose in this part of the world—demon tamers! 

Li Changsheng was a bonafide demon tamer! 

Demon tamers had the ability to sign a contract with wild demons, then train them, cultivate them, direct them to fight, or even utilize the demons' special skills to complete various tasks. 

Normally, a demon tamer's first demon was provided by their clan, elders, or sect. However, Li Changsheng was a slightly unique case. Ever since a special skill awakened inside him, Li Changsheng could no longer appreciate the wild demons provided by his elders or his clan. To him, those wild demons came from low classes. 

Besides, a demon tamer's first demonic pet is a matter of great significance to a demon tamer. In fact, this might directly affect their lives and their future achievements. 

Due to the rules that governed the world, when a demon tamer signed a contract with their first demon, they would establish a Cardinal Contract. 

Therefore, the first demonic pet was also termed a Cardinal Demonic Pet. 

A Cardinal Demonic Pet was extremely important. It could provide great assistance to the demon tamer in return. The more outstanding this demonic pet was, the faster the demon tamer could grow! 

However, the prerequisite for that was closely related to the grade and level of the Cardinal Demonic Pet. The greater the grade or the higher the level they were, the greater the return it would be to the demon tamer! 

A demon's grade was determined by the combination of its potential and genetic template. The greater the demon's potential, the faster it would grow, and the easier it would be for them to break through bottlenecks in their development. Meanwhile, the genetic template could receive different levels of development. The greater the genetic template, the greater the development it would get. 

On the other hand, the death of a Cardinal Demonic Pet would bring disastrous rebounds to the demon tamer. Therefore, under normal circumstances, demon tamers would do their best to get their hands on Superior Grade Cardinal Demonic Pets. 

However, ordinary demon tamers could only "see" the demon's basic information after signing the contract with the demons. To them, they could not obtain High Grade demonic pets purely through their human judgment—luck was also a deciding factor. 

Luck—flimsy as it was—had real effects in the world. There would always be a few fortunate people who "accidentally" signed contracts with extremely High Grade or even mutated wild demons and shot up to the peak. Of course, they were very rare cases. 

A demon tamer's judgment was closely related to their observation and experience as these would allow them to determine the demons' grade from the demons' strength, body size, and behavior. However, these judgments were normally inaccurate and required great physical exertion. It might even land the demon tamer in great danger. 

Lastly, the strength of the demon tamer also played a role. If the demon tamer could not even defeat the wild demon they wanted to sign a contract with, there would not be a contract in the first place. 

In theory, with enough strength, a demon tamer could form a contract with any wild demon no matter how weak or strong the demon was. 

Unlike ordinary demon tamers, unknown circumstances caused Li Changsheng's soul to mutate the moment he became a demon tamer. As a result, he obtained a very unique ability. 

This ability allowed his omniscience to have a strong penetrative ability that could disregard the obstruction of the demon's physical body and point straight to the source. Once Li Changsheng unleashed his omniscience, he was able to obtain the demon's basic information, including their name, level, grade, bloodline, et cetera. 

After experimenting with it countless times, Li Changsheng concluded that demons would change differently according to the strength of the luster, and depending on their demon grade. 

Of course, there was a limit to his special ability. Since the ability was mainly dependent on the strength of his omniscience, the ability could only cover a radius of 30 meters at most with his current omniscience. 

Ordinary demon tamers could only obtain a demon's basic information after signing a contract with them and this would take up vast amounts of time and energy, and even then the information was woefully inaccurate. Everyone only had that much energy to spend. 

On the contrary, Li Changsheng did not have to go through a contract to obtain a demonic pet's basic information. On top of that, he could obtain the information of all the demons within range. It was clear who had the advantage. 

When Li Changsheng grew up in the future, perhaps a single cast of his omniscience would be able to cover a radius of several miles or even tens of miles to increase his efficiency. 

This was also why Li Changsheng rejected the "inferior grade" demon that his clan provided without hesitation. He would rather throw himself into mortal peril in search of a Superior Grade demon. 

His birth into his clan resulted in him being put through training and education conducted by his clan members. This included the training of his body and gaining knowledge of surviving in the wild. Most importantly, Li Changsheng was an intelligent one—he made sure his search location was not far from his clan. His clan had swept through this area plenty of times. There were hardly any overpoweringly strong wild demons around the area. Therefore, as long as he made his preparations well, he was able to guarantee his safety. 

Li Changsheng pursed his lips and sprinted forward, one large step at a time. 

Roar! 

Before long, a furious roar sounded behind Li Changsheng. Seeing that Li Changsheng was getting away, the White-fronted Tiger grew more anxious. It hastily opened up its mouth. Countless green sparkles started to aggregate quickly to form a light green wind blade. It instantly slashed the vine ropes into two. 

After successfully breaking free of its rope shackles, the White-fronted Tiger leaped into the sky. It leaped so high that it went straight out of the trap's range. Realizing that Li Changsheng was about to leave its field of vision, the tiger accumulated Wind-type energy again. A layer of green glitter surrounded its huge body and its already impressive speed increased to another level.

Ahead of the tiger, Li Changsheng's ears twitched ever so slightly as he detected sounds that seemed to be approaching him from behind. However, he did not turn back. Gritting his teeth, Li Changsheng lowered his head and rushed toward his next destination. 

Almost there now! 

The White-fronted Tiger's huge, round eyes flared in anger and its open mouth bared its sharp fangs. Its strong limbs moved with rapid movements to close the distance between it and Li Changsheng. 

A few breaths later, there were only thirty meters left between the White-fronted Tiger and Li Changsheng. The White-fronted Tiger nearly caught up. 

Logically speaking, Li Changsheng should be within the White-fronted Tiger's attack range. Yet, it seemed like the White-fronted Tiger had its reservations and chose not to cast a ranged attack at its prey. 

At the same time, Li Changsheng reached the edge of the forest. The piercing mountain wind whipped his face like a fierce tide and made his clothes flap loudly. 

Li Changsheng was standing before a dead-end. There was nothing but steep rocks, wilted grass that swayed violently in the wind, and a cliff that plummeted tens of thousands of meters down. Thick clouds covered the base of the cliff, making the bottom an unknown abyss. A small rock fell from the mountain but the sound of it hitting the bottom was never heard. 

However, there was another cliff about a dozen meters away which led to the entrance of another forest. 

Li Changsheng was rather confident about his familiarity with the surroundings here. For safety's sake, he practiced this route more times than he could count. 

Without any hesitation, Li Changsheng grabbed hold of a rope that was secured to a big tree on the opposite side of the cliff and took a step forward. He stepped heavily off the rock at the edge of the cliff and swung toward the opposite cliff. 

In a split second, the White-fronted Tiger appeared at the edge of the forest. When it realized that Li Changsheng was about to escape, it stopped holding back and instinctively condensed Wind energy to form another wind blade.