Li Yu didn’t know what the Dreadnought was thinking and he simply didn’t care. Once his Sentry was created he reached into the void and pulled out his staff. It was now glowing with an additional sinister pulsing purple light that was interweaving with the black light it always had. The staff was now heavily empowered by both the Void and Destruction Laws. The space around the weapon was visibly fractured, unable to handle the power.

  ‘It is a good thing that Khaos made this out of his own shell for me. I can’t think of anything else that would be able to be fused with both Void and Destruction Laws and still be completely intact. My usage of it is currently rough and unrefined so it would destroy just about anything else. I need to refine my usage so I could use a wooden staff and have nearly the same effect.’ Li Yu thought to himself as he quickly glanced at his own staff.

  Li Yu hefted the staff onto his shoulder and the destructive energy naturally avoided his own body. The Sentry clone mirrored his stance with its own staff made out of energy, preparing its own devastating arts. From the time that his killing intent exploded out to him grabbing his staff, only a few breaths had passed. It had all happened in an instant.

  Li Yu launched himself at the beast and was ready to truly test his abilities

  “Alright,” Li Yu’s voice boomed to the surrounding area as he charged down like a comet. It was amplified by the soul pressure of his twin Nascent souls and sounding like the judgment of a god. “Let’s begin the dissec—”

  Half way down and in the middle of his battle roar, the beast did something completely unexpected.

  The massive Sky-Iron Dreadnought, a creature that was described as endless aggression and destruction, suddenly deflated and all of its explosive aura was withdrawn.

  It coiled up into a ball and the only section of it outside the ball was its head. It pressed its head down to the ground. It looked like a lifeless beast, as though it was already dead.

  The terrifying gravity field it had generated vanished instantly. The scorching heat radiating from its vents cooled down. The golden light in its eyes dimmed rapidly, replaced by a dull, fearful luster.

  The beast let out a low and pathetic whimper that vibrated through the grey floor. It was the sound of submission. It was clear what it was trying to show and tell in that instant. ‘I give up, I surrender, do not kill me.’

  Li Yu froze in mid-air with his staff raised for a strike that never came. He had to stop all of his momentum and battle readiness. It was quite an awkward feeling for him. To suddenly stop when he was so full of gusto just moments ago. His Sentry clone also paused, mirroring his confusion.

  The killing intent, the laws, the Fisherman and Koi—everything hung suspended in the air, a terrifying tableau of power with nowhere to go.

  "What are you doing?" Li Yu asked out loud, genuinely bewildered but still on guard in case this was some kind of trick. He had been ready for a cataclysmic battle. He was ready to bleed, to break bones, to push his limits against a Divine Transformation monstrosity.

  Instead, the monstrosity was groveling on the ground before the battle even started.

  The beast didn’t move or respond, save for a slight trembling that rattled its armor plates. Its instincts, honed over thousands of years of survival, had overridden its aggression. It didn’t make it this far in life by being stupid, when its instincts spoke, it listened.

  When Li Yu had released his full power—specifically the combination of his two souls and the Laws, specifically Void and Destruction—the beast’s primal brain had registered one singular message: ‘Death is imminent. Resistance is Impossible. Eradication is certain.’

  It didn’t matter that it was in the Divine Transformation realm. It knew, deep in its core, that the tiny creature floating above it could not only kill it but unmake it entirely. It didn't want to die. It had just recently broken through to a new realm; it had thousands of years of life left.

  So, it did the only thing its instincts told it could possibly ensure survival against an absolute power. It submitted completely. It was begging for its life. ‘This is the only path for survival.’ Its instincts told it.

  Li Yu slowly lowered his staff, though he didn’t dismiss his power yet. He stared at the prostrate beast, his mind racing but most of all he was frustrated. The sheer anticlimax of it was stunning. He felt like he had wound up for a maximal force punch only to have the target vanish into smoke.

  "You... are surrendering?" Li Yu asked, probing the beast with his spiritual sense.

  The beast responded not with words—it seemed it truly had sacrificed the ability for complex language—but with a wave of raw emotion projected from its soul.

  Fear. Submission. A desperate plea for mercy.

  Li Yu was stunned. He looked at his Sentry clone, which just shrugged back at him. ‘Wait, did I just look to myself for some kind of reaction? And did it give me one? That’s a bit odd.’ Li Yu thought. It was a brief and strange moment between his two minds.

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  Then, the beast did something even more surprising.

  From the center of its forehead, right between the massive armored ridges over its eyes, a glowing ball of golden light slowly emerged.

  Li Yu’s eyes narrowed fiercely. He gripped his staff tighter, his aura flaring up again and was ready for action. "Is this a trick? A desperate final attack? Like that nasty Xylarri with its last ditch soul attack on me?"

  But the golden orb didn’t attack. It floated incredibly slowly, tremulously, towards Li Yu.

  ‘I will send my soul up very slowly so there can be no misunderstandings here. It would be a tragedy if he thought it was an attack and destroyed my soul because of it.’ The Dreadnought thought to itself.

  It was going so slowly in fact that it made for a really awkward scene between the two as Li Yu was waiting for it to come up. It was an undefended soul, the most vulnerable part of a cultivator. It was the beast’s core being, offering itself up. This was the most primal form of submission, showing that one side had complete control.

  Li Yu realized what was happening and what it was when the soul was moving so slowly. It was offering a soul contract. It was voluntarily trying to become his contracted beast and submitting to him. Of course, in exchange that it got to live..

  He hesitated at the thought. A creature this powerful, one that had reached the Divine Transformation wouldn't usually submit so easily. Usually, you had to beat them within an inch of their lives, shatter their will and then force the contract.

  For one to offer it up just based on his abilities from going all out?

  "You really don't want to die, do you?" Li Yu mused, his caution warring with the immense opportunity before him. It made sense, no one wanted to die if they could avoid it.

  If this was genuine, having a Divine Transformation beast as a servant was incredibly valuable. It was far more valuable than its corpse that would just be turned towards cultivation. A mount, a guardian, a weapon of mass destruction that he could point at his enemies.

  There was also a point that he hesitated at. This beast wasn’t one with an aquatic bloodline. He couldn’t store it within his Koi Sanctuary and it wouldn’t benefit from it either. He would have to get a beast bag capable of storing such a monster or let it roam openly.

  This created a bit of a headache for him. He would have to take this thing back to the alliance and then ask for a beast bag, if there is one, that is capable of storing him in.

  "Fine," Li Yu finally decided. "But if you try anything, I will destroy your soul instantly."

  He didn’t reach out with his hand to grab the soul. As though it knew exactly what to do at this time, the Fisherman acted. The Fisherman raised its fishing rod and the line whipped out. The hook at the end snagged the golden sphere of the beast's soul.

  The beast flinched violently as it saw the Fisherman take action, afraid its soul would be destroyed. However, its soul was hooked and it realized that both parties understood each other. It let out another pathetic whimper but it did not resist. It allowed the Fisherman to reel the soul in.

  Li Yu didn’t need to do anything at all. The soul flew in front of the Fisherman and its hand formed several different seals that were imprinted on the soul. Runes and complex seals that Li Yu didn’t recognize or understand were flying into the soul and then a small silver of the soul was extracted out and flew into the Fisherman. The Fisherman then threw the soul back at the beast.

  Instantly, a bridge was formed in Li Yu’s mind. A chaotic, yet currently terrified presence connected to his consciousness. The contract was formed but it was different from the others that he had formed before. The Sky-Iron Dreadnought was now his but it was different.

  The Fisherman must have done something special because Li Yu realized he could fully understand the Dreadnought’s thoughts. He couldn’t do this with other beasts he contracted before, it was always through speaking with them. Those that couldn’t speak, he could only vaguely sense their feelings and thoughts.

  Li Yu dismissed his Sentry clone. The Fisherman and Koi went back on their own after the soul was contracted. His killing intent disappeared. The grey void suddenly felt much emptier.

  The beast below felt the pressure vanish. It let out a long, shuddering sigh that vented massive amounts of heat, fogging up the area. It slowly lifted its massive head, its golden eyes looking at Li Yu not with rage but with absolute obedience. ‘I hope I made the correct choice and my life will not be a miserable one.’ It thought to itself but this time Li Yu could hear those thoughts.

  ‘You didn’t make the wrong choice, perhaps it will be the smartest choice you will ever make.’ Li Yu replied to it, shocking the beast.

  ‘Master… We can talk to each other now? I’ve never heard of such a seal before. Even in my inherited memories there isn’t anything like this mentioned.’ The beast replied.

  ‘I don’t know either to tell you the truth. That Fisherman from earlier did it and the techniques it used are not techniques I know…’

  ‘Isn’t that your Nascent Soul? Isn’t that you? How can you not know what you did?’ The Dreadnought asked in bewilderment. ‘Is my master insane?’ It thought, forgetting that Li Yu could understand it now.

  ‘I am not insane! How dare you!? It’s complicated, okay? Let’s just leave it at that.’ Li Yu snapped back but he too didn’t have a real answer.

  Li Yu drifted down and landed gently on the thick armor plating right between the beast’s eyes. It was like landing on a massive crafted vessel made of jagged iron. It might look like iron but the armor plates on this beast was stronger than all but the rarest of ores.

  He reached down and patted the cold, rough metal of its snout. The beast flinched at the touch, terrified of him. It thought he might try to get a bit of revenge for its thoughts earlier.

  Li Yu shook his head, a strange smile on his face. He had come looking for a fight to the death to test his limits and he ended up with a colossal, armored pet.

  ‘For a world ending catastrophe that many made you out to be,’ Li Yu murmured, patting its massive head again, ‘you're actually quite timid, aren't you?’

  The beast let out a low rumble that shook Li Yu’s whole body. ‘Master is right, it seemed that in my quest for physical perfection, I had neglected to fortify my willpower.’

  ‘Just call me Li Yu or senior brother or Wise Host. I am used to those names, not master.’ Li Yu quickly told it.