Animal-eared Girl Era: Start by Forming a Contract with an SSS-Class School Belle

The fat lady roared, "I don't care, I want to see the person alive or see the corpse dead, I'm fat enough already, I don't want to put on any more weight."

This wasn't an era where fat was considered beautiful, and recently, she sensed an explosive growth coming in her weight. *She was panicking, desperately needing Destructive Material and Life Material.*

Hong Tao, feeling frustrated, rubbed his brow. *Even he sensed something fishy about the Death Soldiers disappearing.*

Death Soldiers who carried the Mirror-breaking Potion and Frenzy Potion would have definitely broken through to the Venerable Realm as soon as they entered the Secret Realm. Then, as planned, they'd harvest as much Life Material and Destructive Material as possible, almost never bumping into other Trainees. Even if they did, they'd selectively avoid them as planned to maximize efficiency.

"Don't rush, I'll ask around," Hong Tao comforted.

Then he dialed Yang Junming's number.

"What, the Hong Family's Pride is dead?" On the other end, Yang Junming exclaimed.

Hong Tao nodded, "That's just speculation."

"Only you can reach them in the Holy Spirit Secret Realm, so I came to see if you know anything."

Yang Junming fell silent.

The Hong Family's Pride could only be contacted by him—he had the navigation steering wheel. As long as he followed the blue needle's direction, he could locate the Hong Family's Pride in the Secret Realm.

But! He'd already given the navigation steering wheel to Xiao Ye.

And Xiao Ye had gone looking for the Hong Family's Pride!

Combined with the fact that, in the Holy Spirit Secret Realm, Xiao Ye was at the peak of the Grandmaster Realm and had terrifying combat power, Yang Junming was stunned.

The death of the Hong Family's Pride very likely had something to do with Xiao Ye!

"Xiao Yang, do you know something?" Noticing the long silence, Hong Tao sensed something was off and quickly asked.

Yang Junming pondered for a moment, then said, "I heard that in the sea territory of the Holy Spirit Secret Realm, there was a clan annihilation war between two Venerable Realm Demon Beast Groups. It was a huge deal and word went far."

"I suspect that the death of the Hong Family's Pride might be related to this war."

Hong Tao frowned, "Clan annihilation war…"

"Do you know which two races?"

In the Death Soldiers' harvest plan, when collecting Life Material, they targeted the Lighthouse Jellyfish Demon Beast Group, which had weaker attack power.

Yang Junming recalled what the arrogant young man Jie Gangtai said, "It was the Alligator Turtle Race and the Lighthouse Jellyfish Race. I heard that the battle was earth-shattering, and the Lighthouse Jellyfish Race was completely wiped out by the Alligator Turtle Race."

"The City Lord's Mansion's pride, Jie Gangtai, personally said so. He witnessed the whole thing from a distance, so it's probably true."

The entire Lighthouse Jellyfish Race was wiped out!

"Hiss!" Hong Tao sucked in a cold breath. From what he knew, the Lighthouse Jellyfish Race had four to five hundred individuals, with over three hundred above the Venerable Realm, and several dozen at the Great Venerable Realm. Although none had reached the Venerable Realm, in Shanghai Base City, they were a huge force.

They'd actually been annihilated by the Alligator Turtle Race!

"I see," Hong Tao sighed.

The Hong Family Assassins most likely got caught in the crossfire of this war and died on the spot before they could escape.

After that, Hong Tao and Yang Junming talked about pulling Xiao Ye to their side.

"The plan's changed. Xiao Ye is now on the Hong Family's death list. What you need to do now is figure out Xiao Ye's habits and weaknesses, then I'll come up with a specific plan."

"Once it's done, you'll get a piece of the pie too!"

Yang Junming's face changed at those words.

It was true that he and Hong Tao were close, but these days, having interacted with Xiao Ye, *he felt like Xiao Ye had helped him in subtle ways, helping him get closer to Contractor Hongyun, and Xiao Ye even saved his life once in the Secret Realm.*

*He felt Xiao Ye had great character and charisma—definitely someone worth befriending!*

*So, before this, he'd already made up his mind to become real friends with Xiao Ye.*

*But now they wanted him to dig into the guy's habits and weaknesses, then come up with a plan to off Xiao Ye?*

"Why did he end up on the Hong Family's death list?" Yang Junming asked with a frown. He was the Child of the Venerable, not Hong Tao's lapdog. They'd worked together a lot, but that didn't mean he'd do whatever Hong Tao asked.

Hong Tao felt something was off. The old Yang Junming would never question things like this—if there were perks, he'd just go for it.

"Xiao Yang, you're not actually thinking about becoming sworn brothers with Xiao Ye, are you?" Hong Tao said, incredulous.

Yang Junming knew how to make nice—he could read the room. So he laughed, "Of course not, just curious is all. Last time you said you wanted to recruit Xiao Ye, and now, just a few days later, he's on your family's death list? That's a big change. I'm shocked, okay."

Hong Tao let out a sigh of relief, laughing, "It's because of old grudges from the last generation, hard to explain. Just stick to the plan I gave you."

Beeeep…

Staring at the disconnected line, Yang Junming sank into thought, *his heart twisting in conflict.*

On one side was Hong Tao, on the other, his first real urge ever to make a friend—with Xiao Ye.

Meanwhile,

After hanging up on Yang Junming, Hong Tao found Jie Gangtai's contact in the family database.

He made the call and got through.

"So it's the Young Master Hong. How are you, Mr. Hong?" Jie Gangtai said.

Hong Tao briefly described the death of the Hong Family's Pride, then asked if Jie Gangtai knew anything about him or the clan annihilation battle.

"Dead?" Jie Gangtai was shocked too, "Died in that clan war?"

He'd never seen the Hong Family's Pride during the whole thing.

After a moment of thought, he said, "Sorry, didn't see them."

"I suggest you ask Xiao Ye from Kunpeng Academy, he knows more than I do. The war started largely because of him."

Jie Gangtai intentionally threw Xiao Ye under the bus. Hating Xiao Ye's guts, he was more than happy to see Xiao Ye being targeted by the Hong Family. Plus, what he said was actually true—not made up.

Xiao Ye really *was* the one who started the clan annihilation war!

Hong Tao's face darkened immediately. Xiao Ye—it turned out the Death Soldiers' deaths were really tied to Xiao Ye!

After hanging up, Hong Tao's expression was ugly. Given what he'd just learned, he could now pretty much deduce that, while the Hong Family Assassins were harvesting Life Material, the two races started the annihilation war and the assassins died in the crossfire before they could escape.

Jie Gangtai said the war started because of Xiao Ye.

So that basically meant that Xiao Ye caused the war, unintentionally leading to the deaths of the Hong Family Assassins.

"It was Xiao Ye who got our Death Soldiers killed!" he turned and told the fat lady.

"That's the kid you said you wanted to recruit last time?" the fat lady asked.

Hong Tao nodded.

The fat lady blew up, "Recruit my ass! I'm telling you, Hong Tao, you send someone to cut that piece of shit down right now!" My Virtual Library Empire (M V L E M P Y R) appreciates your readership at the source.

"Cut him! He needs to go!" Hong Tao's eyes flashed coldly, "But this needs to be done step by step."

The fat lady grabbed his collar and yanked him off the ground, shouting, "Hell no, I want him dead *now*! Hong Tao, you're getting more useless by the day—you can't even kill a guy without dragging your feet."

Getting looked down on by his Contractor wife, Hong Tao glared hard and then decided,

"Fine, I'll make it happen now!"

He recalled that ten minutes ago, City Lord's Daughter Mu Qingxue had asked him for permission to cultivate in the Conception Crystal Cave.

Hong Tao decided to use Mu Qingxue. While she was cultivating in the Conception Crystal Cave, he'd lure Xiao Ye in, and then release a top-grade Aphrodisiac in the air—potent enough to poison even Great Venerable Realm experts.

Aphrodisiac: A drug that forcibly makes men and women hook up.

Once they were both drugged and ended up sleeping together, he'd send a team into the cave, using the excuse of catching a rapist in the act for Mu Qingxue, and blast Xiao Ye to death.

If the Kunpeng Venerable put pressure on them afterward, the Hong Family could drag the City Lord's Mansion out as a shield.