Being considered a loser in the eyes of other people, was not enough to force Su Gu to give up. He knew his situation, had a.n.a.lyzed and concluded the possible results if he failed. Some people advised him to bend his knee to his two brothers now, and openly state his intentions to not partic.i.p.ate in the Lordship compet.i.tion. However, Su Gu knew the personality of his two brothers clearly. No matter which one of those two become the Lord of Fallen Leaves City, Su Gu would not get to live a happy life, even if he survived the end of the Lordship t.i.tle conflict.
So Su Gu decided to compete with his two brothers. A slave master who had no ambition was not considered competent enough.
Since Su Gu was determined, he kept practicing his enslavement ability in his chamber every day, without others getting a wind of it. However, a slew of countless failures lessened Su Gu’s confidence in himself.
Since he had attempted the enslavement ability numerous times, Su Gu’s mind was attuned to even the slightest change in his ability. Feeling the difference that day, Su Gu was keeping an eye out for experiencing the same perception once more, while he practiced the enslavement ability again. To his pleasant surprise, Su Gu found that, he was able to use the enslavement ability much more easily compared to the previous times.
*What was going on?*
Calming down, Su Gu began to a.n.a.lyze the possible reason for this sudden change. He first thought that it could be due to his daily practice, but he immediately shot down that line of logic – there had never been such obvious changes during his countless practice sessions until this day. In the past few days, his practice time was even less than usual because of various things, but the final result now made him feel stumped.
*Why?*
*Why was this happening?*
Su Gu recalled the things that he had done during these two days and replayed them in his mind one by one. Midway, he suddenly stopped his action of drumming his study tabletop with his fingers, and he thought of a possibility –
*Shao Xuan from the Flaming Horn tribe!*
*The one who has the ability to predict like the Shaman!*
*Yes, the change seems to have happened then*. Su Gu didn’t pay attention to it then because he had been preoccupied with other troubles. But now, in retrospect, he remembered that he indeed felt different at that time, as if a scoop of turbid water mixed with sand was filtered by densely woven linen (t/n: basically, Su Gu seems to have felt his enslavement ability become purer and powerful).
The more Su Gu thought about it, the surer he felt.
In his room, Su Gu with his mind in chaos, walked back and forth, hopped around, clenched his fist and waved it hard. After a while, taking a few deep breaths, Su Gu tried to calm himself down.
To confirm his speculation, the very same day, Su Gu came to look for Shao Xuan again.
It was night by then. Shao Xuan looked at the fervent and energetic third young master who was practicing his enslavement ability in front of him.
Shao Xuan took out a Water Moon stone to enlighten the room. Looking at the young slave master who was unbridled at the moment, Shao Xuan did not drive him away, but once again began observing the changes of the flame within his mind. He guessed that Su Gu had experienced some favorable changes because of the eggsh.e.l.l in his mind. Su Gu wanted to get benefit from him, while Shao Xuan himself wanted to study the power of the slave masters – so, it was a win-win deal for both of them.
The red and blue flames became more orderly and the flames of the two colors gathered up by themselves and became distinct. When Su Gu cast the power of enslavement, the blue flame that appeared on his hand became more and more stable, unlike the previous times when were likely to be blown away by the wind.
Lei, who slept in the room opposite to Shao Xuan, looked at the moon outside the window and then at the light coming from Shao Xuan’s room, thinking: *What was the third young master still doing here? Is there something wrong with his brain?*
Su Gu stayed in Shao Xuan’s room until the next day.
When the tribesmen, who woke up early in the morning, got together to discuss about the cooperation between the Flaming Horn tribe and the third young master again, the front door of the Flaming Horn tribe’s residence was opened. The third young master of Fallen Leaves City, whom they were just talking about, walked out of the house with a straight face, as if something had made him very angry.
After Su Gu left, the tribesmen who had gathered together to chat still had an unbelievable expression.
“Is that person… Su Gu? The third young master of Fallen Leaves City?”
“It seems to be.”
“That is definitely Su Gu!”
“Why did Su Gu come out of the residence of Flaming Horn tribe this early in the morning? Could it be that he came there before it is light?”
“I heard that Su Gu had come last night. So he spent the whole night there?”
Even if some slave masters had formed an alliance with tribesmen, no slave master was ever known to have stayed over in the tribal area for a whole night. No wonder these tribesmen were trying hard to wrap their minds around what they had seen.
“Look at Su Gu’s expression, Did he quarrel with the Flaming Horn tribe?”
“Maybe they failed to have a successful negotiation on something.”
“I think so.”
In their opinion, Su Gu and the three people of the Flaming Horn tribe were not having a healthy alliance. They appeared to be quarrelling whenever they got together.
At that moment, Su Gu kept a long face, to prevent people from seeing his excitement. Since he was forcing himself to not laugh out of joy, the blue veins popping out on his face made him look scary. He wanted to laugh, however, if he left the Flaming Horn tribe with a joyful expression, people would come to a conclusion that he had gained some benefits from the alliance with Flaming Horn tribe.
Su Gu strongly felt that he shouldn’t let others learn about Shao Xuan’s ability. If Su Gu’s two brothers found that out, they would try to form an alliance with Shao Xuan (and the Flaming Horn tribe) in all possible ways. Right then, Su Gu felt lucky that he got a chance to cooperate with the Flaming Horn tribe.
When Su Gu decided to cooperate with the Flaming Horn tribe, he really didn’t take them seriously. Even if it was not the Flaming Horn tribe tribe, as long as a tribe was willing to form an alliance with him, he planned on treating them with the same courtesy and att.i.tude. But now, Su Gu’s att.i.tude towards the Flaming Horn tribe changed completely. Because of Shao Xuan’s tips and the subsequent improvement in his enslavement ability, Su Gu thought highly of Shao Xuan now.
*This was indeed a perfect alliance!* Thinking of Shao Xuan’s request, Su Gu was about to prepare. The Flaming Horn tribe wanted to know more about the slave masters, he had to prepare quickly, otherwise the ally would despise him.
Returning to the palace from the tribal area, Su Gu saw some slaves carrying many pots, filled with fruit wine, from the wine cellar. Thinking that he could drink fruit wine, Su Gu’s mood became even better, and finally he couldn’t help but smile. *Well, I’ll ask the slaves to send some fruit wine to the Flaming Horn tribe’s residence*.
In a good mood, Su Gu even smiled to the slaves.
Seeing Su Gu’s smile, the slaves who were holding the pottery almost trembled and broke the pottery.
*Is this man really the third young master? Why is he is directing such a kind smile at us?*
*Hasn’t he woken up?*
Su Gu didn’t look at the stunned slaves but kept walked towards his chambers. When he pa.s.sed through the pool in the palace, he stopped to enjoy it.
It was extravagant to build such a pool to plant flowers and raise turtles in the desert. Such extravagance could only be seen in the palace of the Lord.
Su Gu did not know the name of the flowers growing in the water. He switched his attention to a turtle that crawled out of the water and laid by the pool, with half of its body exposed.
The turtles raised in the pool were all brought from other places, by the slaves. People thought that these turtles would not survive in such an environment. However, many survived, but on the flip side they were not at all active. They rarely reacted even when someone poked them with gra.s.s sticks, and the color of their body had become fainter, the reason for it still remained a mystery to the people there.
The air near the pool and flowers seemed extraordinarily fresh and moist. Su Gu sat by the pool and looked at the turtle. He quickly poked it with his fingers, but the turtle did not move.
He poked it again.
The turtle kept still.
Su Gu ignored it.
Su Gu looked around. A team of patrol slaves had just pa.s.sed by and there were no other people around.
Thinking of the hard work during the night, Su Gu couldn’t help but mobilize the power in his body. Soon, a blue flame appeared in his palm, which was so stable that its shape could be recognized.
Feeling the smooth process, Su Gu’s mood was refreshed. He felt as if his body was cooled with cold water on a hot day.
*Perhaps I will be able to enslave people and have slaves of my own quite soon!*
As Su Gu looked at the flame in his palm, in his peripheral vision he got a glimpse of the turtle which was moving slowly. He then reached out towards the turtle with his hand.
The moment he touched the back of the turtle, the blue flame spread over its body.
As the flame spread, black stripes appeared on the turtle’s back. Su Gu felt a kind of power transfer from his arm to the turtle.
After a moment, Su Gu felt the energy in his body stabilize again – the flame on his palm also disappeared.
Feeling tired, Su Gu kneaded his forehead. Thinking of something, Su Gu’s eyes fixed on the turtle on the side of the pool, and the expression on his face changed from incredulity, to stunned, surprised, and then to anger. The fast-changing expression made the muscles on his face twitch.
He succeeded in enslaving.
It was delightful.
However!
Su Gu really didn’t want to be known as the very first slave master whose first object of enslavement was a turtle!