"Shibyo, if you were to receive an inheritance from a dragon, would you get stronger as well?"

Tyler asked.

He was walking down his path with Shibyo on his shoulder.

Shibyo nodded but then quickly shook its head.

"Huh? What do you mean? Will you get stronger or not?"

Tyler felt confused by its reaction, so he asked for the second time.

Shibyo gave him the same reaction as before, which further intensified his confusion. Of course, Tyler stopped asking soon.

"I really need you to speak human language."

Hearing his words, Shibyo slapped him with its paw and pointed at its head.

"Ow"

Tyler found his body flying into the air before he crashed on the ground.

"Damn! Are you trying to kill me?"

He jumped to his feet and roared, only to find Shibyo mocking him while pointing its paw at its head.

Tyler paused.

He had heard that those in the Soul Sublimation Realm could communicate with one another through their souls. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Because this communication didn’t require voice, the people could basically relay what they thought, making it a better form of communication.

Thinking about it, Tyler sighed.

"I never thought you were already a Third Rank Monster. Now, I feel like I am surrounded by Soul Sublimation Realm cultivators."

Originally, only Alfred was at that level. But within just a few days, both Daisy and Erena reached the Soul Sublimation Realm.

And now, a monster beast he found on the roadside was also a Third Rank monster, which was equivalent to the Soul Sublimation Realm.

"Nee?"

Shibyo noticed his confusion and walked closer, thinking he had hurt him. But he could sense that Tyler wasn’t hurt in the slightest.

"Don’t worry, I am just surprised. By the way, are you just attracted to my humming?"

Tyler asked.

Shibyo nodded and showed a joyful face.

’Then, I am relieved.’

He thought to himself before picking him up. He placed him on his shoulder and continued his journey.

Suddenly, he noticed the change in Shibyo’s tail and ears. He instantly became alert, trying to find anyone around him.

He couldn’t hear any noise until five minutes later.

’Those are horses. They are coming from that direction. Bandits!’

Without a second thought, he jumped into one of the trees and hid himself. Nearly two minutes later, seven horses with seven bandits arrived.

They looked around but didn’t find anyone.

"Are you sure Yellow Cat is here?"

One of the bandits asked.

"Boss, Treasure Hunting Mouse can’t smell things inside the forest, but it had smelled the Yellow cat before."

"We are following it for three hours. Look! It can still smell that cat. It must be somewhere close."

Another bandit took out a grey mouse and pointed at its noise. It kept moving its head until it pointed in a certain direction.

Seeing this, Tyler had no choice but to come out of hiding.

"Ha! That’s the Yellow Cat, and it looks like someone is already its owner."

The bandit shouted.

"Tsk! Who cares? Danzo, play it!"

Another bandit took out a music player and pressed the button. Soon, a beautiful melody rang from the music player.

At first, Shibyo became interested and raised his head. But then, he snorted and lay on his shoulder.

"What’s wrong? Why isn’t it coming to us?"

"Maybe it doesn’t like this melody. Danzo, change the melody!"

"Captain Hiruzen, look at its tail. That doesn’t look like a normal Yellow Cat’s tail."

Upon noticing this, the bandit by the name of Hiruzen burst into laughter.

"Hahaha! This is great. A Mutated Yellow Cat sells for more than a normal yellow cat."

But he quickly noticed that the Yellow Cat had completely ignored them. Seeing this, he gritted his teeth and said.

"Everyone, attack that man! He must be the reason why that beast is not coming to us."

Danzo turned off the music and said.

"Hiruzen, I believe he must have used the Summoning Technique on that beast."

"That’s right! And Danzo, call me Captain!"

Hiruzen shouted.

Soon, his men jumped off their horses and ran towards Tyler.

"Hehe, boy! You shouldn’t have made the contract with that beast. It is a thousand times more valuable than you can imagine."

"Blame your luck!"

One of the bandits reached in front of him and swung his sword. But suddenly, he noticed that he was watching his body swing the sword.

It was weird.

’Huh? Why is my body over there?’

In his last confusing moment, he died with open eyes.

Nobody, not a single person, saw how one of their people died.

Hiruzen’s eyes widened.

"Attack him from a distance!"

"But Captain Hiruzen, it will affect the Yellow Cat."

"Is money more important to you than your life? Use the elemental techniques!"

"Humph! You are too soft, Hiruzen. As long as their lives can bring us wealth, we can always get more people to follow us."

"That mutated Yellow Cat can be sold for millions of spirit stones."

Danzo whispered, but his voice was full of anger.

"Danzo, they are my people. Even bandits must have a code of conduct."

Hiruzen clenched his fist and replied.

"Humph! You’ll regret it."

"I am the Captain, Danzo."

Their conversation wasn’t heard by other people because of the sound of the explosion.

Two of the bandits immediately launched fireballs towards Tyler, forcing him to use Instant Step to dodge them.

Tyler held the hilt of his sword and used the Instant Step. Before the bandits could react, he found his head on the ground.

’Fourth, fifth, all of them are only at the fourth or fifth level. Compared these, those two must be at a higher level, but the difference shouldn’t be that high.’

’Interesting! That man very much sounded like he cares for his subordinate. But even watching his subordinate die, he isn’t making a move.’

Tyler had a playful smile on his face as he dodged a large stone hurled his way.

Bang!

The stone collided with the ground and created a small shockwave. Using this moment, Tyler instantly rushed towards the one who used the Earth Technique.

[Sword Drawing Technique]

Tyler’s hand movement was extremely fast, allowing him to take the bandit’s head before he could even react.

"Captain Hiruzen, help us!"

"Captain, we need your power."

A few bandits started fearing his power. Their legs went weak, and they could barely hold the sword in their hand.

They started asking for help. Unfortunately, Hiruzen was coldly watching their battle.

Even when they asked for help, he didn’t make a move.

’Humph! You can’t always keep this facade, Hiruzen.’

Danzo clenched his fist as he watched their men die. Although he didn’t care about their death, he didn’t like the idea of Hiruzen getting all the praise.

He was always good with his subordinates and had maintained a good relationship enough for them to sacrifice their lives.

But at the death of their comrades, even the fools would realize that Hiruzen wasn’t a good person as they had assumed.

Unfortunately, Hiruzen wouldn’t give them a chance to realize this. As long as none of them survived, the new members wouldn’t know.

This cycle would continue to the next bandit group.

Unfortunately, Danzo didn’t realize that Hiruzen’s hands were shaking violently. The gap in strength between him and the other bandits wasn’t high.

Danzo thought Hiruzen was using them to exhaust Tyler. At first, that was the case, but the more Hiruzen watched this, the more fearful he became.

At this moment, he shouted.

"Danzo, use your strongest attack!"

"Huh?"

Danzo was surprised by his words, but he quickly started gathering mana into his mouth before releasing a massive burst of flames.

[Fire Dragon Art]

By honing his fire technique with his inherited technique, he could easily turn the flames into the shape of a dragon while also increasing their temperature.

At the same time, Hiruzen also gathered a large amount of mana into his mouth and released a huge typhoon.

[Wind Blast Art]

As two techniques collided, they merged into one, creating a massive fire dragon that engulfed everything in front of it.

"Danzo, retreat!"

Without a second thought, Hiruzen voiced his retreat.

Danzo, confused by his words, tried to make some sense.

"Are you kidding me, Hiruzen? Our prize is in front of us. Why are you retreating?"

But when he turned around, he noticed Hiruzen was already riding his horse away from him.

"Damn it!"

Danzo roared but eventually decided to follow after him.

After all, Hiruzen might’ve been a ruthless leader, but he was still his best friend.

Suddenly, two black tenticaales emerged beneath those horses and before they could go far away, they were pulled towards the ground.

"Neigh! Neigh!"

The horses started screaming as they fell.

"Damn it!"

Hiruzen jumped out of the horse and so did Danzo. When they landed, they instinctively turned their heads at the flame.

Only to find a figure standing in front of them, with his hand still on the hilt.

"Hiruzen? Danzo? Quite nostalgic names!"