Divine Beast Creator
Chapter 425 Noscarte Castle_1

Chapter 425: Chapter 425 Noscarte Castle_1

"There shouldn’t be that many, it just looks like a lot, but a huge part belongs to those Spirit Beasts. By the way, Hong Zhi, have your Xiao Hui and Xiao Hei mastered shape-shifting?"

Feng Yuan asked Yang Hongzhi, as before the New Year’s separation, Xiao Hei and Xiao Hui had only begun to grasp shape-shifting. He wasn’t clear on whether those two had fully mastered the skill since then. Yang Hongzhi replied with a wry smile,

"No, they are still the same as when you left... I don’t know if it’s because I don’t know how to teach them..."

Feng Yuan rolled his eyes and said,

"I guess they are just being lazy. With enough practice over time, they’ll get it. It has nothing to do with teaching."

As Feng Yuan spoke, he looked at Ah Mu, who had shrunk down. Although Ah Mu had a hard time mastering it, after a month of hard work, he was now fully capable of shape-shifting.

Dou Yanlan chuckled and said,

"It’s a good thing Cotton doesn’t need to learn that skill. Otherwise, with its lazy temperament, who knows how long it would take."

Cotton glared at Dou Yanlan, stretched lazily, and then lay on the table waiting to be fed by her.

Doting on Cotton, Dou Yanlan picked up a spoon and served the food for it.

Feng Yuan glanced at Cotton and said,

"Being so lazy, you better be careful not to evolve into a big fat cat. Look at how well-behaved Xiao Ji is..."

As he was speaking, Feng Yuan turned his head to look at Xiao Ji, only to see Xiao Ji holding a small plate and gazing pitifully at him. Feng Yuan, clearly unimpressed, said to Xiao Ji,

"Eat by yourself!"

Xiao Ji paid no attention and continued to look sorrowfully at Feng Yuan. After a while, Feng Yuan sighed and relented,

"Fine, fine..."

Seeing that Feng Yuan had given in, Xiao Ji turned to the Dreaming Dragon Baby at its side and flashed a smug smile.

"You seem to be in a bad mood. Try this."

Jenna said, handing Najia a small pastry. Yang Hongzhi had also noticed that Najia was reluctantly eating every dish as if weighed down by heavy thoughts. After accepting the sweet from Jenna, Najia gave a slight bow, and Jenna watched her with an amused expression.

After Najia finished the sweet and seemed slightly happier, Yang Hongzhi considered ordering more of the same pastries. At that moment, Jenna, with a smile, handed over a fruit platter, saying,

"Next, try this."

Seeing Yang Hongzhi watching Jenna keep passing food to Najia, Feng Yuan sighed,

"Trying to get this fellow to look after Najia is a bit of a hassle..."

Handing Xiao Ji a snack, Feng Yuan wiped Pomiti’s mouth and said,

"That’s enough, no more eating."

Pomiti looked at the food on the table with tearful eyes, longing for more. Feng Yuan gently pressed on Pomiti’s belly and said helplessly,

"You’re already stuffed, still want to cram more in?"

Pomiti sat sulkily to one side, watching everyone eat. Noticing the Dreaming Dragon Baby trying to share its food with Pomiti, Feng Yuan warned,

"Don’t just feed it anything! If it gets sick, see how I deal with you!"

The Dreaming Dragon Baby stuck out its tongue at Feng Yuan and shrank back. Big Cat, while eating, kept an eye on Jenna as if suspecting that she might steal his food.

Raising his cup triumphantly, Feng Yuan teased Qi Xiaoshuang by swaying it back and forth,

"Delicious~ too bad you can’t have any~ ah!"

"Let go!"

Rubbing his wolf ears, still sore from being grabbed by Qi Xiaoshuang, Feng Yuan decisively chose not to provoke her further.

That evening, the group returned to the square after Jenna had taken them on another tour around Calien. Feng Yuan had changed back to his original form as soon as they left the Giant Rock Tavern.

Looking at the guards dressed in ancient guard attire, Qi Xiaoshuang said with curiosity,

"Those guards are so strange."

Qi Chen glanced at Qi Xiaoshuang, puzzled, and replied,

"It’s just different clothes, isn’t it? What’s so strange about that?"

"They are not accompanied by Fiery Hounds, which are commonly used by the Alliance. And..."

Dou Yanlan looked at the guards with a somewhat strange expression and said,

"It seems they are not Beastmasters."

Dou Yanlan said as she surveyed the residents around her with some confusion and spoke in a low voice,

"And it seems that these residents are not Beastmasters either."

"Isn’t that quite normal? Not everyone can become a Beastmaster."

Qi Xiaoshuang looked at Dou Yanlan with incomprehension as Feng Yuan sighed and said,

"What she means is that not even one person here has signed a contract with a spirit beast."

"No way!"

Qi Xiaoshuang looked around in surprise and also realized something was amiss. After all, there were quite a few children playing in the square, and adults gathered in groups of twos and threes, chatting about something. At first glance, there seemed to be nothing amiss, but a closer observation would reveal the anomaly.

Although there were spirit beasts frolicking in the square, those spirit beasts were clearly brought by tourists, as could be seen from the affectionate manner between those spirit beasts and the tourists. And excluding those spirit beasts, there were no other spirit beasts on the entire square.

"Under normal circumstances, there should always be someone with a spirit beast suitable for taking care of children, and they would let them out to take care of their own kids, but now..."

Dou Yanlan analyzed, then looked at Feng Yuan and said,

"Do you know what exactly is going on here?"

"I have a conjecture, but weren’t we supposed to be touring first? Are we starting an investigation into what’s happening now?"

Qi Chen glared at Feng Yuan before saying irritably,

"You have some nerve, dragging us here to act as guides."

"Who said I whimsically pulled people to be guides!"

Feng Yuan retorted with some dissatisfaction, and no one noticed that Najia, who was perched on Yang Hongzhi’s shoulder, was tugging at the hood of her cloak as if she were hiding from something.

"Is today the day we tour Noscarte Fortress..."

Dou Yanlan said, looking at the itinerary in her hands. She then looked up at the towering fortress on the hill, and except for Feng Yuan, everyone else’s expressions grew more solemn as they realized that the root of the problem lay there.

"Let’s go, the guide is calling for us to gather."

Feng Yuan, hearing the voice of the guide downstairs calling the tourists, said to everyone. Yang Hongzhi was about to go down when suddenly he noticed Najia hiding to the side, beckoning to her in confusion,

"Let’s go, it’s time to leave."

Najia shook her head at Yang Hongzhi and slipped into the room, closing the door behind her. Feng Yuan sighed after looking at the closed door,

"Let’s just go."

"But what about Najia..."

"Maybe it doesn’t like Noscarte Fortress? If it doesn’t want to go, let’s not force it. Let’s go."

Feng Yuan pulled Yang Hongzhi down the stairs while Najia curled up on the bed in the room, trembling incessantly.

Following the tour group to the entrance of Noscarte Fortress and looking at the tall city walls, Qi Xiaoshuang hastily pulled out her camera and began recording video, Yang Hongzhi said somewhat dejectedly,

"What exactly is wrong with Najia? Why does it feel so strange?"

"Just in a bad mood, I guess. After all, this place..."

Feng Yuan gave a sigh and did not say anything more. Qi Chen was too busy paying attention to Qi Xiaoshuang and did not notice the conversation between the two, while Dou Yanlan, hearing Feng Yuan’s remark, looked up to observe the ancient fortress.

The massive stone walls of the fortress had perhaps been carefully maintained and repaired, as time had not left many traces on them. Soldiers dressed in ancient military uniforms patrolled the walls. Had it not been for the modernly dressed tourists, the ancient fortress would have looked almost the same as it did centuries ago.

Residents wearing traditional clothing lived within the small town inside the fortress; people dressed in soldier uniforms bullied the stall vendors; women wearing old, tattered traditional clothing chatted in shady corners; and children played with their handmade, rudimentary toys all over the place.

"They really did a good job with the restoration."

Qi Xiaoshuang exclaimed. Although she knew the place was excellent at re-creating an ancient environment since inside Calien Town, Noscarte Fortress seemed even better by comparison, perhaps more so because it limited the number of tourists, which preserved the ancient atmosphere more than Calien Town.

Feng Yuan looked around and smiled without explaining anything. Because of Najia, Yang Hongzhi was not in high spirits and simply looked around aimlessly. Suddenly Yang Hongzhi seemed to discover something unbelievable and tugged at Feng Yuan’s robe, whispering,

"Is that Najia’s kin?"

"No."

Noticing that Feng Yuan did not even look before answering, Qi Xiaoshuang glared at him disapprovingly and, following the direction pointed out by Yang Hongzhi, looked surprised and said,

"It does look a bit like it."