Nonsense! How could my adopted son be a villain?

Dongyang Li asked with great interest, "Wouldn't that mean many cultivators would be fighting each other again?"

Qin Long was clearly pleased with the excitement: "Many people have sent invitations to my father, but to be fair, he has refused them all. He said that the public auction will be held on the last day of the exchange meeting."

Chai Feng, who hadn't spoken until now, suddenly asked, "Speaking of spirit pets with pure bloodlines and great potential, the Ten Thousand Beasts Manor should have quite a few, right? Why doesn't the Manor Lord keep them for himself?"

Qin Long pursed his lips: "You'll have to ask my father for that. I even threw a tantrum and begged him for it, but he wouldn't give it to me, he wouldn't even let me see the Qilin blood. Who knows what he's up to? If I could steal a little Qilin blood, my babies might grow even better."

Then Qin Long warmly invited the three of them to visit his spirit pet garden.

"But it's better if my dad doesn't give it to me. I have so many precious treasures, it wouldn't be fair to give them to anyone, and it saves me from having to worry about it."

Unable to refuse Qin Long's hospitality, the three of them went with him to the Spirit Pet Garden.

When they arrived, they discovered that his so-called spirit pet garden was actually just a huge, separate courtyard. It housed at least a hundred spirit pets of various breeds, including those that fly, run, and swim.

Moreover, these spirit pets got along very well and didn't fight at all.

As soon as Qin Long entered, he called out "my darling" to his pets. The spirit pets in the yard turned around to look at him in twos and threes, and some even walked a little further away.

Qin Long seemed used to ignoring the spirit pet, and even forced himself to approach it to show affection.

Xu Lingguang even saw an unidentified species inside, covered in hair and with a single horn.

Qin Long was clearly very proud of his spirit pets, and introduced his beloved pets to the three of them one by one.

Xu Lingguang only learned from his introduction that the unidentified long-haired, one-horned creature was actually called "Ami".

To be honest, that spirit pet's appearance was really not good-looking; to put it bluntly, it was ugly.

However, Qin Long treated every spirit pet equally. He affectionately stroked Amei, who was ignoring him, and said, "I picked Amei up from the roadside. She's probably an abandoned spirit pet. Although she looks... a bit different, please don't be prejudiced against her because of that. Actually, she has a very good temper and is very sensible..."

Just as he was praising Amei, Amei, clearly annoyed by his harassment, suddenly opened her mouth wide and bit his head.

Xu Lingguang then noticed that the alien-like spirit pet's mouth was actually split off from the middle of its body.

Xu Lingguang: "..."

Is this really a species that can be kept as a spirit pet?

At that moment, Amei opened her mouth wide and bit Qin Long's head. Qin Long squealed and yelled, telling the others not to make any rash moves: "It's okay, Amei is just joking with me. Don't move, let me do it myself."

As he spoke, he began to stroke Amei incessantly, and then fumbled in the storage bag at his waist to take out some dried meat to coax her.

After coaxing for about ten minutes, Amei finally opened her mouth reluctantly, let go of Qin Long's head, and instead took the jerky from his hand, swallowing it without even chewing it.

At this moment, Qin Long's head and face were covered in an unknown liquid, but he didn't care. He wiped his face and chuckled, "I told you, Amei has a good temper and is easy to coax."

"..."

No? Bro, you call that having a good temper? You could lose your head in no time.

Xu Lingguang's lips twitched, thinking to himself that this was a ruthless person.

After leaving the pet garden, Qin Long led them to the guest rooms.

The guest room was specially arranged by Qin Long, and it was very close to the Spirit Pet Garden where he was staying, only two courtyards apart.

After Qin Long saw them inside, he called over the steward in charge of receiving guests and gave him some instructions. Then he said politely, "It's getting late. You should rest first. I need to go back and take a bath and clean myself up. I'll take you to see the city tomorrow morning to show you around and be a good host."

After everyone left, Dongyang Li crossed his arms and looked at Chai Feng: "I never expected that someone as dense as you would have such an interesting friend as Qin Long."

Chai Feng raised an eyebrow: "Interesting?"

The three of them, recalling the scene of Amei swallowing his head, all wore expressions that were hard to describe.

Chai Feng clearly also felt that Qin Long was a difficult person to describe, and finally hesitated before saying, "Although Qin Long's hobbies are somewhat unusual, he is a good person and worth getting to know."

Because of the shortage of rooms, the three people were only assigned to two guest rooms.

One room was a single room. The other was a suite.

At this point, the question becomes how to arrange the rooms.

Xu Lingguang actually suspected that Qin Long had arranged it this way on Chai Feng's instructions.

So he very readily said, "Muyun and I will stay in the room next door, and Brother Dongyang and Brother Chai can stay in the suite together."

To everyone's surprise, Dongyang Li nearly jumped up upon hearing this, objecting, "No, Chai Feng should go next door, and the two of us will stay in the big room."

Xu Lingguang was being held by the arm and couldn't shake it off no matter what he did. He could only look at Chai Feng helplessly with an expression of being unable to help.

Chai Feng remained expressionless, showing no hesitation, and nodded decisively: "Then I'll stay next door."

Dongyang Li, having won a great victory, revealed a smug expression and made a face at his retreating figure.

Xu Lingguang pulled the drowsy Mu Yun out of his arms and tossed him into his hand, asking, "Do you want to sleep inside or outside?"

Dongyang Li, wide awake, said with great enthusiasm, "It's still early, why don't we sleep side by side and chat?"

Xu Lingguang refused, worried that Chai Feng would be furious and hunt him down if he found out: "I'd better not, I'm a little sleepy."

Dongyang Li could only sigh regretfully, "That's fine then, we can talk another day. I'll sleep outside, and you can sleep inside, so I can look after you if anything happens."

Xu Lingguang yawned and said sleepily, "What could possibly happen at the Beast Manor? I'm going to take a shower and go to bed."

Xu Lingguang took a quick shower and then lay down.

These past few days have been a constant journey. Although he could sleep on the airship, it wasn't as comfortable as sleeping on a high bed with soft pillows, and Xu Lingguang hadn't slept well at all.

He placed the drowsy Muyun on the pillow and then closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Mu Yun, still half asleep, opened her eyes and looked around groggily for a while. Then she snuggled closer to his neck before curling up into a ball and going back to sleep, satisfied.

Whether it was Xu Lingguang's jinx or not, just after saying that nothing could happen at the Ten Thousand Beasts Manor, the three of them were startled awake in the middle of the night by a sudden, loud roar.

Xu Lingguang sat up abruptly, feeling his heart pounding wildly as if it were about to jump out of his throat.

Mu Yun was also startled awake and huddled under his clothes, trembling.

Dongyang Li, who was sleeping in the outer room, pushed open the door and asked, "Are you all alright?"

Xu Lingguang belatedly realized that his nose felt a little wet. He touched it and found that he had a nosebleed. While pinching his nose, he checked on Mu Yun and saw that Mu Yun was curled up and trembling.

He hastily wiped away the blood from his nose, held Mu Yun in his palm, and patted him soothingly.

With his coaxing, Mu Yun seemed to be trembling less. Only then did Xu Lingguang remember the roar from earlier: "What happened? It sounded like some ferocious beast was howling outside?"

The sound was deafening and chilling.

Dongyang Li shook his head seriously: "I don't know. Chai Feng has already gone to investigate. I'm also planning to go out and take a look. Do you want to come with me?"

Xu Lingguang nodded, hurriedly dressed, and then tucked the shivering Muyun into his chest pocket to hide her. "Let's go find Chai Feng and meet up. We'll go take a look together."

As the two came out of the house, they saw Chai Feng frowning and looking in the direction of the Wan Shou Manor's main courtyard.

Dongyang pulled Xu Lingguang closer and asked, "What exactly happened?"

Chai Feng said, "It seems something happened at the Wanshou Manor. The steward just came over and said that a spirit tiger in heat was restless and escaped in the middle of the night. He asked us not to wander around."

Since they were guests, and the host had already said so, they couldn't pry or inquire recklessly, so they could only wait for news inside the house for the time being.