403: Chapter 403 Mo Qi

"I will definitely find an Illusory Beast and become an Phantom Beast Master."

Nineteen-year-old youth Mo Qi gritted his teeth, enduring the pain in his knees as he continued to crouch in the rocky hollow.

Lingxiu Mountain is home to three types of Illusory Beasts; although they cannot be harmed, they can be captured and private training is permitted.

This is also the origin of many folk Phantom Beast Masters.

Mo Qi's goal was the Illusory Beast permitted for capture on Lingxiu Mountain: the Three-Tailed Spirit Fox, a rare creature with excellent illusionary abilities.

Most Illusory Beasts permitted for capture have little attack power or are even mediocre, such as the other two types, the Snow Chirp and the Moon Rabbit. These two species can hardly cause effective damage even to ordinary people unless they evolve. However, making an Illusory Beast evolve is ten or a hundred times harder than capturing one, let alone for a child from an ordinary family like Mo Qi.

Mo Qi had been crouching on Lingxiu Mountain for half a month. When he was hungry, he ate raw wild mushrooms and wild vegetables; when he was thirsty, he drank the dew gathered on leaves in the morning.

Finally, he managed to wait out a Three-Tailed Spirit Fox.

But he didn't dare to approach it directly. Instead, he waited for it to eat the Pearl Fruit he had planted long ago, which had been soaked in anesthetic. The Three-Tailed Spirit Fox was extremely alert, excelled at shadow-splitting illusions, and was incredibly fast; once discovered, it would be very difficult to control.

Dozens of meters away, visible only through the gaps between branches and leaves, was a small seedling bearing fruit that looked like pearls. A two-foot-long Three-Tailed Fox appeared ten or so meters away from it.

Mo Qi was excited; he had finally waited long enough. As long as this Three-Tailed Spirit Fox ate the Pearl Fruit and the medicine took effect, he could capture it.

When the time came, he would go to the Illusory Beast Hall in the city to form an Illusory Beast contract, and then he would be a true Phantom Beast Master!

However, he couldn't let several years of preparation go to waste. To say nothing of other things, just that Pearl Fruit plant had cost him three full years of savings from working.

"I can definitely succeed," Mo Qi encouraged himself in his heart.

The Three-Tailed Spirit Fox observed its surroundings warily. After confirming there was truly no threat, it walked with light steps to the Pearl Fruit, tilted its head to bite one off, and tasted it with enjoyment.

It ate it!

Mo Qi was overjoyed, his hands trembling with excitement. Then, disaster struck in his moment of joy; because he shifted his footing, a stone that had long been loose above his head fell from the rocky hollow.

The stone hit the ground with a crisp thud, and Mo Qi's heart went cold.

In the silence of the morning forest, the sound of that stone hitting the rock on the ground was incredibly loud.

The Three-Tailed Spirit Fox's ears pricked up, and its body suddenly turned into an afterimage as it fled.

Panic and regret surged within Mo Qi as he bolted after it.

He was already nineteen years old, and that Pearl Fruit plant would wither in less than ten days. If he lost this chance, the hope of encountering another Three-Tailed Spirit Fox would be slim. As for preparing again, in three years, he would already be twenty-two.

Mo Qi gritted his teeth and chased.

Upon seeing Mo Qi, the Three-Tailed Spirit Fox actually stopped, leisurely wagging its tail with what seemed like mockery in its eyes.

"Damn it, a stinking fox dares to mock me. Just wait until I catch you; I'll teach you a good lesson."

The Three-Tailed Spirit Fox seemed to be intentionally leading Mo Qi on, running a few steps then stopping, running a few more and stopping again.

Mo Qi pursued so relentlessly because he knew the fox had at least eaten one Pearl Fruit; there was a chance the medicine would take effect and it would faint.

As Mo Qi was thinking, his foot suddenly stepped into thin air. He looked down and discovered with horror that there was a cliff below!

His body fell rapidly. Looking up, he saw the Three-Tailed Spirit Fox standing on a protruding rock, wagging its tail!

"I..."

When Mo Qi woke up again, he found that he had turned into an infant.

"Wah, wah, wah!"

A crisp and powerful cry came from his mouth.

"I... I'm not dead?"

"Wait, have I been reincarnated? Is this still Holy Heaven Mansion?"

Mo Qi was suddenly struck by a wave of panic. Compared to the joy of being alive, he felt that if he had been reincarnated outside of Holy Heaven Mansion, it would be better to just be dead.

He had watched plenty of apocalyptic films.

Those apocalyptic films weren't fake; they were all filmed on location outside Holy Heaven Mansion. It was a world full of contamination, with gray earth, gray skies, gray vegetation, and the constant threat of the pain of mutation.

Living like that would be worse than just moving on to the next life.

He turned his head, and when he saw the sunlight outside the window, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief. There was sunlight—good, at least that meant this was a very powerful Safe Zone.

However, seeing the scene inside the room, he became somewhat puzzled. Where was this?

"Congratulations, Lord Rhine, it's a young master."

"Hahaha, good, good! Today, all the servants in the manor shall receive a month's worth of reward money!"

Mo Qi was even happier than those joyful servants. Good, good—it seemed that in this life, he was a young master of a family!

This time, he swore he would become a powerful Phantom Beast Master!

As for Lord Rhine, who was a mage, his eyes were filled with pleasant surprise. Magic—he felt pure magic radiating from the child. Heaven had shown mercy; he was forty years old and had fathered thirteen children, and finally, a child with a Magic Source was born!

There was hope for the family legacy, hope for the family legacy indeed!

The elegant noblewoman lying on the bed also noticed Lord Rhine's unusual excitement. One must know that Lord Rhine already had thirteen children and had long since become indifferent to the birth of a child. Usually, he would visit when each child was born, but afterward, some children would rarely see their father for a year or even several years.

A guess immediately rose in the noblewoman's heart.

As Lord Rhine's wife, although she was an ordinary person, she knew some secrets—namely, that her husband was a mage!

A real mage, not some fraud.

The reason Lord Rhine was so happy must be that this child of hers possessed some kind of mage aptitude.

Thinking of this, the noblewoman's heart fluttered.

Could her child really become a mage?

Yes, he could. Not only could he, but when Mo Qi was six years old and his spirit had stabilized, Lord Rhine couldn't wait to test the level of his child's Magic Source.

In truth, it wouldn't have mattered if it were only level one or level two. Having thirteen children in a row without a Magic Source had caused this forty-year-old mage to stop holding onto expectations.

But when the crystal ball flashed with dazzling golden light and nine brilliant stars floated within it, even Lord Rhine was stunned on the spot.

"One, two, three... nine."

"One, two, three... nine."

"One, two, three... nine."

Lord Rhine for a moment thought he had developed early-onset dementia.

Level nine. A level nine Magic Source. What did that mean? As a mage secretly stationed in Slock City by the Magic Academy, he knew all too well what it meant.

As long as he didn't go astray, this child was almost certainly the next Dean of the Magic Academy!

The next nine-star Archmage!

Lord Rhine was so excited he forgot to breathe. He was only a four-star mage himself, and now, now he had actually fathered a son with a level nine Magic Source.

If he were to show this to his old friends—no, he couldn't! Lord Rhine suddenly snapped to his senses. If this were only a level six or even a level seven Magic Source, there would be no need to hide it.

But it just had to be level nine, and a level nine in this period of all times!

Lord Rhine regained his composure. He took a deep breath and quickly took out a piece of magic stationary to write a letter to the Master of Radiance House, who was also the current Dean of the Magic Academy, Dean Gaius.

"Respected Dean Gaius..."

Meanwhile, the six-year-old Mo Qi had also learned over these six years that this was not Holy Heaven Mansion, nor was it even his original world.

It was a completely different world!

As for being in another world, he didn't actually find it that absurd. After all, since something like being born with his memories had already happened—and in the current Holy Heaven Mansion, web novels were as prosperous as they were a hundred years ago.

Mo Qi had read his fair share of transmigration novels.

Regarding other worlds, not to mention the Azure Realm of the Lord of Holy Heaven Mansion, which was a vast world spanning countless miles, even on Peach Mountain, there were many secret realm worlds spanning hundreds or thousands of miles.

Holy Heaven Mansion even had quite a few passages to other worlds; he had seen them on television.

He just didn't know if he still had any hope of returning to Holy Heaven Mansion.

That year, with a nervous and excited heart, Dean Gaius quietly took Mo Qi in as his disciple.

He planned to teach him in secret. Those with a level nine Magic Source generally did not have poor souls; even if it took thirty years to master the Magic Source, he could afford to wait.

When the time came, he would be a nine-star Archmage—a true nine-star Archmage, not someone an eight-star mage could even compare to.

Between eight-star and nine-star, the gap of a single star was even greater than the gap between one-star and eight-star.

This was also why a single nine-star Archmage could suppress the entire Magic Academy.

"Child, are you willing to take me as your master?"

Mo Qi saw at a glance that this old man was not simple; he looked exactly like the 'old grandpa' figure from novels, so he bowed his head immediately.

"Master!"