Hate Me, Miss Witch!

Sealing Stone Monkey

This is the species name of the pet contracted by Xaya through his second soul pact.

Unlike other pets that are traditionally birthed through eggs or live births, the Sealing Stone Monkey species does not have a bloodline inheritance. The Sealing Stone Monkeys are born from the laws of nature, or, using terminology from Xaya's previous life in the cultivation novels, they are formed by gathering the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and absorbing the essence of the sun and moon.

Because of this, their numbers are relatively scarce, and Xaya only encountered this round stone by sheer coincidence.

The unique trait of the Sealing Stone Monkey is actually quite simple. During its early life stage, the stone monkey is enclosed in a companion stone, which provides some decent defense but leaves it completely helpless in every other aspect. The monkey has no means of attack and can only roll the giant stone around, unable to move much on its own. Even a Steel Fang Dog at the awakening level could easily beat it up by stomping on the stone.

However, the Sealing Stone Monkey, while enclosed within its stone, possesses a rare and unique ability that even some King or Ruler-tier pets don't have — the ability called "Gestation."

As the name suggests, the Sealing Stone Monkey can continuously absorb elements and resources from the outside world while enclosed in the stone, which it then converts into its own accumulation. This accumulation is what enables the Sealing Stone Monkey to evolve once it breaks free from its companion stone.

According to records Xaya has reviewed, if the Sealing Stone Monkey absorbs materials like "Molten Mountain Turtle Shells," "Fire Lizard Powder," or "Red Flame Sub-Dragon Scales," its evolution will likely follow a fire-element route, evolving into creatures like the "Molten Fire Spirit Monkey" or "Magic Flame Gorilla." On the other hand, if it absorbs earth-elemental materials, it might evolve into a "Titan Ape," a king of the earth.

However, since it has now come into Xaya's hands, it will certainly not follow the typical, well-established evolutionary routes.

Without hesitation, Xaya took out the evolution materials he had already prepared — a crystal-like ore that radiated a silver-white glow. This was an item he had obtained by spending his accumulated achievements in the jurisdiction bureau.

It was a level-four space-type evolution material called "Void Crystal Stone."

According to the jurisdiction bureau's introduction, this crystal also contained a faint element of time law.

"Get ready."

Xaya gave a soft reminder, and then directly placed the Void Crystal Stone onto the slightly shaking large stone.

The Void Crystal Stone released a dazzling silver-white light, which quickly liquefied and slowly merged into the giant stone.

Xaya, quietly stroking Silver's furry tail, which had somehow come over, silently watched the flickering, intermittent silver-white light.

To acquire this level-four evolution material, Xaya had not only exhausted the large amount of achievements he had painstakingly gathered over the past half-year, almost wiping out his entire savings, but he had also emptied his last bit of assets.

When he chose to redeem the "Void Crystal Stone," the jurisdiction bureau clerk who had been somewhat supportive of Xaya had earnestly advised him for a long time. After all, space-type and the more mysterious time-type properties, while sounding grand, were deep and complex, far beyond what an ordinary person could master.

Though space-type pets were extremely powerful once fully formed, their cultivation cycle and cost were much greater than that of pets of similar tiers. Moreover, before they fully matured, space-type pets usually only had auxiliary abilities and lacked combat prowess.

Investing the same amount of time and resources into a traditional pet would yield tangible combat power, but invested into a space-type pet, it might not even make a ripple.

In the clerk's opinion, since Xaya didn't seem to have a strong background to supply resources, his choice to develop a space-type pet in the critical second soul pact was an example of being blinded by the allure of the space-type's grandeur, and was a classic case of aiming too high without being grounded.

But of course, Xaya was not swayed by the opinions of others.

Time passed in silent anticipation.

In no time, the once mineral-like Void Crystal Stone had completely liquefied into pure silver-white liquid. It slowly seeped into the giant stone, turning the originally gray-white stone into patterns of silver-white veins.

At that moment, a crisp cracking sound broke the heavy silence in the chamber.

The silver-white veins on the stone glowed brightly, and a tiny crack appeared slowly at the top of the stone.

Then, in the tense gaze of Xaya and Silver, the crack rapidly spread, covering the entire stone in the blink of an eye.

Crack!

The giant stone shattered into pieces, large and small, and from the center of the fragments, a small figure began to emerge from the fading silver-white glow.

Its slender fur, like gold threads, shimmered under the faint light in the chamber, giving off a warm glow, resembling Xaya's previous life's golden snub-nosed monkey.

Unlike its rough, unappealing relatives from the Emei Mountain, this golden-furred monkey was like a snow mountain spirit from another world.

The little golden monkey curiously looked around with its jet-black eyes. Though it could sense the outside world through its soul link with Xaya while inside the stone, it wasn't as clear or direct as seeing it with its own eyes.

"Ying ying ying! (Welcome to the team, newbie!)"

Silver greeted the little golden monkey with a cheerful voice, expressing her welcome as Xaya's first pet to the new addition. She had long hoped for a companion, as even when practicing her skills, she needed an opponent.

Before, when the Sealing Stone Monkey was trapped inside the stone, it couldn't react even if it was hit by illusions, leaving Silver to train her "Tsukuyomi" skill by herself in the wild.

Now, with a new training partner, Silver's joy was heartfelt.

Of course, as part of the soul contract, Xaya could also feel the underlying message in Silver's voice — probably something like welcoming the new arrival to make their formal introduction.

"Kiki kiki (Hello, big sis!)"

The little golden monkey quickly showed its wit. Its dark eyes glanced around before it immediately leaped onto Xaya's right shoulder. It had long envied Silver's exclusive spot there while it was still in the stone.

Now that it had broken free, the little golden monkey quickly seized its coveted place.

As for where the new pets would sit now that both shoulders were taken, it didn't care.

Xaya gently stroked the little golden monkey's furry head, causing it to squint contentedly.

"Well, since you've evolved successfully, you should have a name like Silver."

Xaya smiled at the little golden monkey, its fur gleaming like gold under the sunlight.

"From now on, your name will be Shiny."