Mercenaries in Two Worlds

When Zhang Qian saw the guard opposite him draw his sword, he stopped and said in a deep voice with an unfriendly expression, "Where did you get these two little beasts?"

Seeing the reprimanding tone in Zhang Qian's voice, the servant in blue screeched him in a hoarse voice, "Who are you to dare speak to my young lady like that?"

The girl was not angry. She looked Zhang Qian up and down with her beautiful eyes for a while and said, "These two little purple moon lions are ones I just bought from someone else. Do you recognize these two little beasts of mine before, young master?"

Zhang Qian frowned. Hearing that the girl said she had bought the two Purple Moon Beasts, he guessed that she wasn't the culprit. He clasped his hands in apology and said, "I'm sorry, I was too hasty. The mother of these two Purple Moon Beasts saved my life a few days ago. Now that I see these two little beasts have been captured, I'm afraid their mother has already met with misfortune, so I was angry for a moment."

Ye Mei and the three members of the Wang family also testified that Zhang Qian was indeed riding a Purple Moon Lion when they first met him.

The little beasts in the girl's arms struggled more and more fiercely, as if confirming that Zhang Qian wasn't lying. The girl squatted down and released the beasts, and the two little animals immediately pounced on Zhang Qian, tears welling in their small eyes, rubbing against him and whimpering pitifully. After comforting them for a while, Zhang Qian hummed a few words in animal language to explain what had happened to them, but unfortunately, the two little beasts were too young and could only whimper, unable to utter a complete sentence.

Seeing how close the Purple Moon Lion was to Zhang Qian, the girl thought for a moment and said softly and gently, "Then I'll return them to their rightful owner. I hope you can take good care of them."

The servant in green immediately became anxious and shook his head repeatedly, "Miss, no way! These Purple Moon Lions cost you so many spirit stones."

Upon hearing the girl's words, Zhang Qian felt a little embarrassed. "How much money did you spend? I'll compensate you." He didn't even consider that he couldn't afford a single penny when he said this.

The girl shook her head indifferently, her red lips parted slightly, "No need, I only felt sorry for these two little beasts. You just take good care of them. It's a pity I don't know that group of people from earlier, otherwise I could have helped them get justice."

Then she frowned slightly, a little angry, and said, "They actually dared to lie to me and say that these two little beasts were motherless orphans, humph." She snorted softly, and compared to her gentle and quiet demeanor just now, her anger was quite charming.

Zhang Qian was unconsciously captivated by the young woman's charm. After a while, he shook his head to calm down and said seriously, "May I ask your honorable name, young lady? I, Zhang Qian, will certainly repay your kindness today."

"Hehe." The girl in green gently covered her mouth with her hand and chuckled softly, "No need, there's no need for that."

The talkative servant in green, unwilling to let his young mistress suffer a loss, said, "My mistress is the daughter of the City Lord of Sword Guard City. These Purple Moon Lions cost twenty mid-grade spirit stones. Judging by your appearance, you're quite the pauper..."

The girl in green glared at the servant boy, a little annoyed, and he abruptly stopped himself from speaking.

The girl in green said, "Young Master Zhang, please don't worry about it. I'll take my leave now."

As she spoke, she prepared to leave with her family. However, a purple moon lion at Zhang Qian's feet saw that the girl was about to leave and howled. It quickly chased after her, but turned back to look at Zhang Qian halfway, hesitated for a moment, and then followed.

Although the girl in green was willing to give the little beast to Zhang Qian, she also loved it dearly. When she saw the little beast biting her hem, her almond-shaped eyes curved into beautiful crescents, and she gently pulled the little beast into her arms. "Oh~ little cutie, you still can't bear to part with your older sister, right!"

Seeing its brother run away, the little beast was tempted, but it still couldn't bear to part with Zhang Qian. Its claws gripped Zhang Qian's trouser leg tightly, while its big, watery eyes were fixed on the other little beast.

Although the Purple Moon Lion cubs were young, they were very stubborn, each clinging to one person and refusing to let go. Left with no other choice, Zhang Qian and the girl decided to each raise one cub, allowing the two little creatures to meet occasionally.

"Sigh," Zhang Qian sighed as he watched the girl's retreating figure.

Ye Mei, who hadn't spoken until now, nudged Zhang Qian with her elbow and smiled with a flirtatious look in her eyes, "Little brother, are you reluctant to part with Purple Moon Lion or Miss Xiao of Sword Guard City?"

Zhang Qian ignored him, muttering to himself, "So her surname is Xiao..."

Wang Yi helplessly put his arm around Zhang Qian's shoulder, pulled him along, and said, "Let's go, stop looking, it'll get dark soon, we need to finish the mission."

That night, the little Purple Moon Lion insisted on squeezing onto Zhang Qian's bed. Seeing the excited little lion running around on the bed, Zhang Qian decisively gave up on sleeping and sat down to meditate. The little beast wouldn't give up, insisting on climbing into Zhang Qian's arms.

"Hey~ Can you behave yourself? By the way, I haven't named you yet, right!" Picking up the little beast, Zhang Qian muttered to himself, "How about calling you A Zi? Oh, no, Xiao Feng will kill me. Wang Cai? That's too tacky. Okay, then it'll be Wang Cai."

When the little Purple Moon Lion saw Zhang Qian smile mischievously, it thought Zhang Qian was happy and started whimpering with its big, watery eyes. Little did it know that this shameful name would accompany it for the rest of its life, a truly disgraceful thing.

After naming it, Zhang Qian ignored it. Wangcai entertained itself for a while, but then got bored and lay sprawled out with its eyes half-closed.

"Ugh, ugh!" Wangcai suddenly gagged, and Zhang Qian, who was meditating, panicked. "Hey, Wangcai, you should vomit on the ground, okay?" Even so, he still picked it up, placed his palm on its chest, and gently stroked its back with his other hand.

With a "vomit," a puddle of mucus and a jade ring fell to the ground. After vomiting, Wangcai whimpered comfortably a few times, then leaned against Zhang Qian, closed its eyes, and fell asleep.

Seeing that Wangcai was alright, Zhang Qian gently wiped the ring clean, lit a candle, and examined it by the light. The ring was neither jade nor gold, but made of an unknown material, completely devoid of any patterns or decorations—utterly simple—yet it seemed to exude a mysterious charm. Zhang Qian then took off the ring given to him by 1024 from the middle finger of his left hand and placed them together, discovering that they both emanated the same mysterious charm.

"Could this be a spatial ring too? Is there some good thing?" Zhang Qian muttered to himself as he probed into it with a faint bit of his divine sense. "Boom!" His mind exploded as a space of about ten square meters appeared out of thin air. Zhang Qian sensed that this was not the space in his mind, but the space on the ring that had been transmitted to his mind through his consciousness.

Besides a pile of spirit stones, the ring contained only a book, a sword, and a jade slip—extremely simple.

Zhang Qian's eyes blazed with extreme joy; he almost cried out. He frantically looked around the room, then realized the spirit stones were inside his ring, invisible even to those peeping—and besides, nobody likes spying on a man. He muttered to himself like a madman, "I'm rich! I'm rich! So many spirit stones! These must be mid-grade spirit stones! They're so beautiful!"

"Mmm~~ Smack." Zhang Qian picked up the sleeping Wangcai and kissed him. "The name was definitely right, Wangcai, just as expected."

Wangcai glanced groggily at the neurotic Zhang Qian, then disgustedly burrowed back into the covers to continue sleeping.