Me...a pet...?

'What to do? I can't run, I can't fight, damn...' I was extremely frustrated in that situation, I let out a yip that was similar to a sigh, and then I watched the man standing in front of me.

"Indeed you can understand me, a soul beast your level would start to scream and cry in my presence, let alone if I'd used my qi on them... what an interesting fox you are..." I lowered my head as soon as he let me go releasing his grip on me.

"Would you like to be my pet?" he asks with a smirk on his face, I wasn't going to answer that sort of question, but due to my mind being what it is, my thoughts started to go vast, and I felt like blushing, not being able anyway.

I shook my head, while my tail was swishing side to side as a dog would do, my paws started trembling at that moment 'Stupid tail and stupid mind...'

The man let out a delighted laugh, the few people, that probably where his servants, looked perplexed, some of them started to even tremble in fear, others sweating anxiously.

When he stopped laughing he asked me something, something I didn't expect "Do you want to become my pet? But for real... I could help you become more powerful..."

It seemed too good to be true, and the fact that I wasn't in the position of refusing gave me the strength to finally think for my self and put away my anger and revenge with no buts or ifs, I shyly nodded, he was a complete stranger, but something in his eyes, a longing sensation, made me feel like he was lonely, just like me, with no one to rely on.

Maybe it was the fact that I was kind of tired, maybe it was that I've had just lost my parents, again... but I thought 'F*ck it, I'm down, he wants to help me? Then he's welcome if he's doesn't then once he'll lower his guard I'll run as far away as I can'.

He was again dumbstruck when he saw the look in my eyes, something he surely had felt too, loneliness and longing, he started to walk towards a small path, it conduced towards a group of tents secluded from the others.

His tent had a red banner on it, now that I gave it the right attention I was able to read "Liehuo", Vamping Fire... I sighed and felt some sort of nostalgia for the days when I used to read novels.

As soon as we entered his servants left leaving just the two of us, together, inside of the luxurious tent.

It looked like a small apartment, making my eyes dart around seeing a big carpet laid on the ground, then in the middle of the tent, laying on the carpet, there was a table.

To the left, I could see a wardrobe and in the back, opposite to the tent entrance, there was a bed, adorned with silks and comfortable looking pillows.

He sat at the table and fixed his eyes on me, I did the same before slowly approaching the table myself and hopping on a chair, he was kind of surprised again, but, this time he hid his expression again in that gloomy face he had before our meeting, he seemed to have around 25-30 years, but as a cultivator, I wasn't really sure on how old he actually was.

Chen Yu... such a dark name, his parents must have been very strict to give him such a name.

"Fox, are you really just a low-level soul beast? Your reactions, the way you act, and even the way your eyes look at the others... it seems very human-like or at least intelligent" He said while studying me, I get on the table, even if my body was still rather small I could easily reach the tabletop from the chair.

I wasn't sure how to act, but once I was seated right in front of him, on the table, so our eyes were almost on the same level, I touched his shoulder with my paw and then touched, as for how my paw juncture made me able to, my chest.

"What should this mean...? Do you really want to be my pet? It was a tease, I won't force a being on the same level of intelligence as a human to serve me..." At that point, I was pretty sure that the conception of a pet in this world was different, so I tried to ask the system about it

[Pets in this world are soul beast who are forced by a master-servant contract to serve a human]

I immediately shook my head not really sure how to communicate with Chen, it was one of the times I was more frustrated in a long time, maybe I've had to wait till I was high level enough to talk before actually interact with humans.

Then I had an idea, I took the paintbrush that was laying on the table and started to draw the ideogram symbolizing friends, and still one of the lots of things I wasn't sure of, my nationality wasn't Chinese, but here I am, writing in Chinese, logically I would have said that since it wasn't a totally new language the system took it as a language I already knew, but there was no way to know till I wouldn't ask the system directly.

"Friends? Human and Soul-Beast...? You really must be a pup after all..." I felt kind of offended by that, and without losing the chance to mock him I made the brush fall on his clothes, making a sort of strange grin that on a fox would look surely bizarre.

But as I soon realized that it made me look even more childish it was too late, he stood up and went near the wardrobe, he took off the black robe with red decorations, underneath plain black pants were covering his body, leaving him shirtless, I rapidly moved my sight from him and jumped off the table.

A laugh made me turn and I finally saw him changed in new and more comfortable attire, it was a black silk robe that had grey floral motifs on it.

"Did you really turned while I was changing? You're indeed a very bizarre animal, Okay you can stay here, but if you have a change of heart, remember that in a month we'll leave the forest for the city of Bai Wu..." I needed to become more powerful and as long as I was near humans I could just consume their resources, as a former human, I knew that we have no boundaries to our greed.

After an awkward silence, he called a servant that brought some food for him, and to my surprise, for me as well...