The Ascension of Contracted Spirits

Chapter 16: Chapter 15: Pink Ostrich_1

"Chirp~~~"

Approaching the season when everything comes back to life, the wind is refreshing, the sunshine is warm, every day is a good day.

With hands in pockets, Ye Hanjun walks alone on the path between the detached villas. The scent of the flowers and plants on the wind is refreshing, but it can't help the silent sorrow in his heart.

"Roar!!"

"Chirp! Chirp!!"

In just three to five minutes, he has seen more than once the fellow assistant teachers, who seem like colleagues, just leaving their homes.

The Contracted Spirit Fond Spirits they summon are Demon Tigers, Horned Sheep, Pegasus, Rhinos, Flying Hawks... Each one is more robust and powerful than the last.

Even worse, seeing Ye Hanjun walking on foot, though they clearly do not know him, they have to purposefully swagger past him.

If Ye Hanjun looked up at them, they would give a slight smile. On the surface, they had the demeanor of a calm and composed expert, but behind the scenes they would spur their Fond Spirits to sprint at a faster speed, disappearing at the end of the line of sight like chased by an evil ghost.

"Each and every one, how got they are at showing off."

Ye Hanjun rolled his eyes and didn't take it to heart.

But, upon seeing a spirit master riding a rubber frog that jumps five or six meters high, and bypasses not only flowers and plants but also houses, Ye Hanjun rubbed his temples, slightly shocked.

"Riding a frog... seems like it wears out the crotch of pants."

"In a few years, when the tadpole finishes its metamorphic development, will I be traveling like this too...?"

Randomly imagining some scenarios, Ye Hanjun felt a slight headache, anxiously preoccupied with his future mental state.

The only solace was convincing himself that the contract hadn't been formally established yet and there was still a chance to find a more suitable Fond Spirit, one that could fight, could be ridden, and wouldn't damage his future brilliant image.

Not to mention... there's still the Blood Pact Summoning!

With so many choices, how could he possibly fail?!

"Caw! Caw caw!"

"Ah! Tuotuo, slow down!"

"Riding unsafely brings tears to my mother's eyes! Slow down! We're going to run into it!"

From a great distance, the loud noises of a racing beast preemptively reached his ears.

Ye Hanjun stopped and lifted his head, subconsciously gazing in the direction from which the sound was coming.

Dust...

A large cloud of dust was rising!

At the end of the side road, an enormous creature was striding towards him at a frenzied pace!

Two young students dressed in casual attire, full of vitality, were originally making their light-hearted way down the street.

Suddenly noticing the peril approaching, the girl's face drained of blood and quivered, clearly terrified.

Although the other boy was also scared, he remained calmer. In the nick of time, he grabbed the girl's hand. The two of them pressed against the wall to avoid the deadly collision.

"Roar!!!"

Dust was swirling, leaving a trail that flashed like lightning.

The face of the racing beast was a blur as it passed the boy and the girl with unmatched speed.

One could vaguely hear a girl screaming in fear and the heavy breathing of an avian creature.

"What... what is that..."

The young man and woman glanced at each other, looking as if they've seen a ghost.

Further afield, Ye Hanjun, standing in the middle of the road, watched the wild dust storm coming closer.

Standing at what was bound to be the path of impact, he showed no panic, just lifting his right eyebrow, revealing a trace of curiosity.

"Swish!"

He drew back, bent down and picked up a handful of dirt, flinging it forcefully in front of him.

The moment he put force into his waist, his lower body rotated backward. His left foot swiftly kicked out, instantly hitting a hard object that was rushing past.

"Ah! Tuotuo! Stop! You've hit someone!"

"Caw! Caw caw... Bang!"

The raging sandstorm abruptly stopped.

A gigantic creature let out a sound of pain and was suddenly tripped by something. Losing steadiness, it stumbled and crashed to the right.

A loud crash echoed, and a wall collapsed. A large amount of dust exploded into the air, causing chaos everywhere.

"Alert! Alert!"

"Someone is damaging city buildings! Call the law enforcement team immediately! Call the law enforcement team immediately!"

"Be aware! The escapee will face triple the fine, and depending on the severity of the situation, extra penalties may be added. The perpetrator should not hold out the hope of escaping, stay at the scene and wait for justice to convict."

...

The harsh alarm sounded throughout the small surrounding area.

After a violent bout of coughing, Ye Hanjun struggled to his feet.

While dusting off the dirt on his body, he gritted his teeth and grimaced to suppress the pain coming from his lightly twisted ankle.

"This crappy body of mine, for such a simple move, almost mishandled it."

"Now it seems that I don't understand myself well enough. 'Old and weak' describes me quite well, at least for now..."

Ye Hanjun shook his head and sighed lightly. His eyes wandered through the swirling dust, searching for his target.

In almost an instant, he locked onto the "perpetrator".

It was an ostrich, with a neck as slender as a snake's, supporting a very small head.

The beak was short and flat, shaped like a triangle, and the eyes were large and bright, resembling a frog's.

Looking further down, its torso was short and stout, and its breastbone flat.

A pair of short wings, extremely disproportionate to its body size, sprouted from its sides. The wings were a striking pink color, as if it were the new darling of the fashion world, fresh and lively.

"Gaaaa!!!"

The ostrich squawked with all its might, its decibel level extremely high.

Forget it being pleasant to the ear, even the call of the Giant Sparrow sounded better than it by several magnitudes.

Most intriguing, the Contracted Spirit Fond, named "Pink Ostrich," appeared somewhat baffled.

Though it was clearly the cause of the chaos, it seemed oblivious to the fact. Its large eyes blinked in bewilderment, and its dumbfounded nature made anyone doubt its intelligence.

"I'm sorry!"

"Tuotuo was unusually excited today, despite my attempts to calm it down..."

Sitting on the ostrich's back was a disheveled girl.

She immediately jumped off and upon noticing Ye Hanjun standing by the debris, scurried over, her face full of concern.

"I'm fine." Ye Hanjun raised his hands, gesturing for her not to come too close.

Given his physical condition, he wasn't comfortable with strangers approaching too closely. It robbed him of his limited sense of security.

"I'm sorry I scared you. Regardless of whether I've hurt you or caused any damage, I will pay for it!"

The girl was in her prime, with short, emerald-green hair.

Despite her mess, Ye Hanjun could discern that her oval face, though not breathtakingly beautiful, had a pleasant charm about it.

Especially those brown eyes, which exuded an innocent naivety. His first impression wasn't bad at all.

However, Ye Hanjun's focus was not on that.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed that the girl had some abrasions. Her exposed arms and legs had several visible cuts.

And her skin, rather than being delicate and fair, was a slightly coarse shade of wheat.

Most likely, she has undergone some intense physical training in her daily life and is not just some fragile vase.

"Ah! You're coughing blood!" Su Mei exclaimed, covering her mouth. Her trembling hands immediately moved to her waist to fetch something.

However, she was too flustered to retrieve the medicine from her bag in one smooth movement, and after several attempts, she still couldn't complete the action.

"Cough! Cough!"

Yej Hanjun took out a clean handkerchief he found in the cabinet and wiped the corners of his mouth. He once again signaled that he was fine:

"Calm down, I'm not hurt."

"But you're coughing up blood—such a severe internal injury can be fatal..." Su Mei, finally able to retrieve the emergency medicine, rushed to try and feed it to Ye Hanjun.

"Coagulating Blood Scatter?" Ye Hanjun glanced at the medicine and his mouth twitched slightly.

"Miss, although the quality of your medicine seems pretty good and must have cost you a lot,"

"Did the pharmacist not tell you that even if you're bleeding from every orifice, you should only take 1 gram of this medicine at a time?"

"You have a handful here, almost 5 grams worth. If I took all this down, you would have turned a live person into a dead one..."

"Ah? That's a limitation?" Su Mei suddenly blushed.

She didn't know whether to offer the medicine or withdraw it, and her entire expression was one of extreme embarrassment.

Fortunately, the timely arrival of the law enforcement team unplugged the standoff. First, a white giant eagle swooped down, followed by a muscular buffalo with two grumpy, middle-aged men flanking her and Ye Hanjun, eliminating their freedom of movement.

"What happened?"

A man with a red armband on his shoulder and a badge reading "Li Yan" on his chest looked up and down at Ye Hanjun, frowning,

"You look familiar, have we met somewhere before?"

"..."

To this, all Ye Hanjun wanted to say was,

In a building as large as Canghai Pavilion with at least a hundred members in the law enforcement team,

How did I encounter the same members from yesterday's incident in a completely different area? This must be some crazy luck.

"I remember now, yesterday there was someone named Jia Pengpeng who also damaged a wall..."

Li Yan glanced at the source of the chaos and the pink ostrich who, acting as if nothing had happened, delicately made its way out of the debris.

After squawking a couple of times, it seemed to realize that the giant white eagle and muscular buffalo were not to be trifled with, and carefully positioned itself beside its owner.

"Only the girl caused the disturbance, the boy had nothing to do with it."

Another man named Qian Biao stepped forward.

He had quickly surveyed the nearby area and by asking shocked bystanders, he came to a conclusion.

"One wall will cost no less than twenty Lower Quality Spirit Stones to rebuild."

"Since this is your first offence, no additional punishment will be levied. Please bring this receipt and pay the Spirit Stones at the City Construction Hall within seven days..."