Chapters 530: Taboo Relationships

Hidimba walked up to his wives.

He moved on all fours, using his hind limbs and the knuckles of his folded wings as forelimbs.

The supposed wives panicked upon seeing Hidimba approach.

"H-husba—!"

"Too late. I gave you enough time," Hidimba said.

Saying that, he bit into the speaking wife’s neck with his long snout. With another crunch, her windpipe was crushed outright.

The female Wyvern fell onto the ground while bleeding profusely, looking into Hidimba’s cold eyes, which held not the slightest trace of remorse.

Hidimba then turned toward the other wives. The females wanted to escape, but Hidimba released his superior draconic pressure and pinned them down.

"I might have thought to save you all, but only if you had been solely devoted to me."

As he spoke, he started killing the female wyverns one by one.

"Fucking with the other kids? Do you really think I am such a fool that I wouldn’t sense their scent on your bodies?"

Another female died.

"The only reason I kept you alive was that I needed more hatchlings to gather enough strength and vent my frustration. And I’m not degenerate enough to fuck with my own kids."

Another female fell.

"Nearly 4 centuries, and you still haven’t accepted me with your soul... die."

Another one fell.

All of those females appeared to die in terrible agony—Hidimba had used something to heighten their pain, evident from their writhing bodies and pained screams. Their children in the background trembled with fear at the sight of their mothers being murdered before their eyes by their own fathers. But under Hidimba’s pressure, they couldn’t even utter a sound.

He finally came to the last female and, for the first time, showed a hint of remorse.

"You were the only true one... but... I will give you a painless death. Die for your master and husband."

Saying that, he drove his fang straight through her skull and killed her instantly. Unlike the other females—who were still writhing—her body went limp immediately.

Hidimba seemed to wince when he killed the last wife. It was clear he had some sort of legitimate soul bond with her, but it was only small. So the bond must have been newly formed and weak.

"Kuku, you are more ruthless than I thought," Zerathra remarked, almost amused by the scene before her.

"But this is not enough for your freedom."

Hidimba nodded as his eyes briefly glowed and the writhing wives died immediately.

"Master, their bodies are safe for their use," Hidimba said, hinting toward the 3 adolescent dragons.

Zerathra nodded and signalled Vulcarion, Pyrotrax, and Ignivorax.

The 3 grinned and immediately went for their designated corpses. Transforming into dragons, they dug their claws in, ripped out the hearts, and devoured them in one gulp. Then they searched for the mana crystal, the soul crystal—if there was one—and the beast core, proceeding to consume them lavishly.

But they weren’t done yet.

After sinking their fangs deep into the corpses, their draconic eyes glowed. All of a sudden, the female Wyverns’ bodies began to shrivel. It was as though even in death, their vitality—or more accurately, their blood—was being sucked dry.

When they finished, they licked their teeth and lips.

"Aunt, we need more."

Zerathra looked at Hidimba, who only gulped.

"Come on, you are not here for a free meal. Hunt down every kid of Hidimba that suits your taste and devour them."

Then she looked toward Leo.

"You too. You are free to try and tame any Wyvern that kneels to your power."

She seemed to think of something.

"Hmm, taming an intelligent beast is complicated. I will tell you a few methods."

Saying that, she began explaining things to Leo as though she were his teacher.

Apparently, to tame an intelligent beast, the beast needed to willingly submit to the tamer. And not even making the beast weak by beating it up was enough. Willing meant willingly; the beast couldn’t even be tamed in an unconscious state, like unintelligent beasts.

It could be achieved by offering a guaranteed benefit absolutely necessary to the intelligent beast in exchange for being tamed.

When the intelligent beast agreed, the world itself initiated a contract at the moment of taming. This meant that whenever a tamer tried to tame an intelligent beast, the world intervened and contract formation began.

The contract was completed and preserved by the world at the time of taming and remained in effect until the agreement was broken by either party.

And in this matter, the tamer was at a disadvantage.

Whether it was the tamer who broke the contract first or the intelligent beast, it was always the tamer who suffered the backlash.

There was also the fact that an intelligent beast was more than capable of breaking the contract willingly.

The only time the tamer could remain safe was when the bonded intelligent beast had reached the Blood Bond stage. It could no longer break free willingly, and now it would be the beast that suffered the backlash from forcibly breaking the contract.

And there was another thing.

Intelligent beasts were far more prone to disobeying orders than unintelligent ones.

Hmm, this is something new that humans have yet to discover. We only knew that we could offer something the beast needed to initiate the taming process. This whole backlash thing is new. Gunther spoke in Leo’s mind.

"Wait, if the beast is the one to suffer the backlash after reaching the Blood Bond stage, doesn’t that mean the beast can still break free? Like... unintelligent ones are incapable of doing that in bloodbond." Leo asked.

Zerathra nodded.

"Well, intelligent for a reason. But there is also a perk to taming an intelligent beast."

Leo immediately focused on Zerathra’s words. Even Gunther was listening attentively.

"And that is, you get to share the talent the beast gained upon attaining intelligence."

Then she casually waved her hand.

"Though talent sharing takes up to 5 skill-sharing slots, so you need at least an Epic soul for that. Now I wonder if you have that in you. And be ready to painstakingly acquire skills one by one, learning them individually rather than copying them... unless you have a higher-rank soul with more slots to copy skills."

She chuckled.

"Kuku, now that’s impossible when only your Emperor has the Legendary soul, which is above Epic. So no skill sharing for you~"

Zerathra said before disappearing into the shadows.

It was well known that if a Beast Master somehow acquired a second talent that allowed him or her to learn skills independently, it became very difficult to do so after becoming accustomed to copying skills from beasts.

There was even a known case of an individual who completely forgot about the second talent and focused solely on Beast Taming.

No wonder Zerathra was acting this way.

As Leo stood there wondering, Zerathra’s voice echoed once more.

"Hurry up, or my nephews might finish sucking all the good wyverns dry and leave only scraps for you."

After a pause, she spoke again.

"Hmm, as motivation, I will allow you to keep all the Wyvern corpses you kill."

Then, after another brief silence, her playful voice rang out again.

"Show me what a human prodigy can do~"