Chapter 345 – Little Monkey Zhizhi

Chapter 345 – Little Monkey Zhizhi

She had dug open the yellow jade stone and caused such a huge mess, yet the Fortune-Telling Spell showed minor fortune.

The Fortune-Telling Spell always had its own logic. So far, whenever it had predicted a result, it had never been wrong.

She just didn’t know where this fortune lay!

For now, Mo Lan could only take things one step at a time.

The old golden-armed ape took the Cat Carry Wine and couldn’t wait to grab a peach pit cup and pour itself a little.

Seeing the long-haired giant ape beside it staring longingly, it reluctantly poured a bit for that one too.

The two monkeys drank and hooted excitedly with “ooh ooh” calls. All their earlier cleverness vanished in an instant.

Mo Lan gave a light cough. “You two take your time drinking. I’ll be on my way!”

The moment the old golden-armed ape heard this, it immediately shot a glance at the white-furred giant ape.

The white-furred giant ape quietly blocked the only exit.

Mo Lan frowned, gripping her Wand in her left hand while several cards appeared in her right. “What’s the meaning of this?”

“Don’t rush, don’t rush!” the old golden-armed ape hurriedly said. “Could I trade with you for more of that wine that looks like water?”

Mo Lan relaxed slightly. “Sure! As long as you can offer something useful to me, we can trade.”

“I have things, I have things!” the old golden-armed ape said. “Let me take you to see!”

Mo Lan hadn’t even said what she wanted yet, and this old golden-armed ape was already so confident?

That piqued her curiosity.

Following the old golden-armed ape out of the wine cellar cave, she saw quite a few golden-armed apes standing guard along the way, all showing expressions of submission toward the old one.

It seemed this old golden-armed ape was the monkey king.

Among this group of golden-armed apes, even the weakest were Intermediate magical beasts, and there were even two Advanced magical beasts.

Add in the old monkey king, whose intelligence rivaled that of sentient races, and this troop of monkeys was probably a considerable force even in the outer region.

Mo Lan was somewhat glad she hadn’t acted rashly and had instead eased relations first.

Otherwise, being chased by a whole troop of monkeys like this would have been quite the headache.

Following the old monkey king, they arrived at a large tree stump covered with animal hides.

Lifting the hide revealed a small round hole at the base of the stump.

The old monkey king called out to the white-furred giant ape: “Go fetch a little one!”

Before long, a swarm of golden-furred baby monkeys crowded over, each scrambling to climb onto the old monkey king.

This forced the old monkey king to shift back into its giant form.

Within three seconds, the old monkey king was covered in round-headed little monkeys.

The baby monkeys were using the old monkey king as a jungle gym.

Mo Lan watched the group of adorable little monkeys, her heart itching with desire.

Just then, the white-furred giant ape extended one pinky finger and nudged a white-furred baby monkey—a head shorter than the others—toward Mo Lan.

Mo Lan: “(⊙_⊙)?”

The white-furred giant ape: “(`)”

The white-furred baby monkey hugged Mo Lan’s calf, tilting its little head up: “”

By the time Mo Lan realized what she was doing, she had already crouched down and was stroking the little monkey’s head.

As she kept petting it, something felt off. Then she saw the white-furred giant ape snickering beside her. Mo Lan: “…”

Damn it, she’d been played!

Mo Lan resisted the temptation and stood up, using Heart Speech to say to the white-furred giant ape: “I don’t deal in monkey trafficking! If you’re trying to trade it for wine, that’s not happening!”

“I’m not trading for wine.”

The white-furred giant ape called out hastily. It couldn’t speak human language, but it knew witches had ways of understanding:

“I’ve heard that you witches all like taking familiars… What do you think of my little grandchild? It’s small, doesn’t eat much, well-behaved and obedient, and just as clever as me. It’s already a low-level magical beast, so it can’t cross to the other side of the Hedge Wall. But it’s got this white fur all over, looking different from the other little monkeys…”

Mo Lan was genuinely surprised now. “You want it to acknowledge me as its master?”

The white-furred giant ape nodded.

Was today’s confusion spell really this effective?

Had the white-furred giant ape been bewitched too?

Oh wait—it wasn’t a magical beast, just a relatively powerful wild beast.

At most, its intelligence was somewhat exceptional. Mo Lan recalled the long-armed apes in the Tall Peach Tree Grove of the Inner Region, who had dropped to their knees at record speed.

This white-furred giant ape, aside from not being able to speak the common tongue, was probably no less intelligent than the old monkey king. No wonder it was just an ordinary wild beast yet had such a close relationship with the old monkey king.

Suddenly, the white-furred baby monkey clinging to Mo Lan’s calf let out a little whimper.

Its meaning came through crystal clear: “Zhizhi is willing to follow Master, listen to Master, and help Master fight!”

The little monkey’s name was Zhizhi.

Mo Lan had long wanted to find some allies or familiars to study Summoning Magic.

Currently, among the various schools of Witch Magic, only the Summoning branch had Ally Summoning and Familiar Summoning—two spells she’d had no opportunity to practice.

She could only practice the Golden Bird spell when sending letters.

Now that a familiar had come to her doorstep, what reason did Mo Lan have to refuse?

Familiar Summoning didn’t require a written contract. When Mo Lan cast the blank Familiar Summoning spell, what appeared was the magical familiar contract terms—woven from Mana transformed into the power of contract.

Familiar Summoning and Ally Summoning were innate contract summoning abilities that witches and Sorceresses possessed from birth.

She maintained the Familiar Summoning spell, then picked up Zhizhi. “Let me explain the terms of this magical familiar contract to you… Huh?”

At some point, Zhizhi had pricked its fingertip. Now, the moment it got close to the Contract Magic, it pressed its bleeding fingertip onto the magical familiar contract.

The power of the contract rapidly merged into Zhizhi’s mind.

Mo Lan, the caster, hadn’t even been ready, and the contract was already established.

A normal magical familiar contract was a spiritual contract made after gaining the familiar’s acknowledgment. This kind of blood contract was typically only used for familiars of very low intelligence that couldn’t comprehend a spiritual contract.

Zhizhi was clearly not one of those.

For Mo Lan, the binding force of a spiritual contract and a blood contract was the same.

For the familiar, it was a different story—a blood contract’s constraints were far more domineering.

Under a spiritual contract, if Mo Lan the master encountered mortal danger, she could voluntarily dissolve the contract and release her familiar to safety.

Under a blood contract, if Mo Lan voluntarily dissolved it, the familiar would simply die. It was truly entrusting its very life to its master.

If the master lived, it lived. If the master died, it died.

But the familiar’s wellbeing, in turn, would cause no harm to the master.

Mo Lan had never planned to rely on a familiar as her main combat force like typical Summoning Witches, so she had never considered using a blood contract.

Now she couldn’t dissolve the contract and redo it as a spiritual contract even if she wanted to.

Zhizhi had already curled into a ball, lying in her arms as it accepted the transformation from the power of the contract.

Mo Lan couldn’t help but shoot a displeased look at the white-furred giant ape beside her.

A baby monkey this small—how would it know about witch contract methods, and even prick its finger in advance?

The only possibility was that a certain old white-furred ape had taught it!

“How could you set up your own granddaughter like this?”

She had just realized—this was a little female monkey.

Even if looking different from the other little monkeys meant she might struggle to survive in the troop later on, there was no need to be this eager about it!