Things became much simpler from then on. Lydia led a squad of reinforcements and quickly took control of the entire village. Before long, the large house in the village was requisitioned so that the lord could rest properly.

  With the village temporarily safe and matters needing to be arranged, Draven could only follow orders. What else could he say? Besides, he had urgent business of his own to attend to.

  First, he reported to Lydia, the stewardess, and after confirming everything was in order, he hurriedly left the village to pick up Viola and the others.

  After leaving the village, Draven took out the Eyebrow-Patterned King Serpent from his pocket and quietly ordered it to spit out the Nightmare Horse.

  That Nightmare Horse had been severely injured in the fierce battle with the Red Serpent and had fallen. Fortunately, it was swallowed whole by the Eyebrow-Patterned King Serpent hiding at the bottom of the river, gaining temporary protection.

  Strangely, this time the Eyebrow-Patterned King Serpent didn't immediately obey Draven's order. Instead, it hesitated several times, opening its mouth as if to spit but then holding back, moving so sluggishly that Draven grew suspicious.

  Just as he suspected that the Eyebrow-Patterned King Serpent might be overfull, it finally spat something out.

  Draven was stunned. What emerged from the serpent's mouth was actually a slender black little serpent!

  This tiny serpent was wrapped in a viscous liquid and kept writhing as if alive. Draven had never seen anything like it and wondered silently: what exactly is this?

  He tried to sense any magical fluctuations from the black serpent but found none at all. Squatting down, he wanted to take a closer look at what was so special about this little serpent.

  But the next moment, the black serpent suddenly raised its head, its eyes flashing with a dim light, and a surge of black energy burst out like a tidal wave, rushing straight at Draven's forehead.

  Draven's vision went dark, and the next moment, he found himself entering a conscious space.

  Everything inside this consciousness space operated as usual, but to his shock, all five contract slots were completely filled!

  He immediately controlled his consciousness to move forward and inspect.

  In the contract slot originally belonging to the druid Liliana, there appeared the figure of a small succubus whose face was almost identical to Lord Selene's.

  Draven was very familiar with the Selene statue on the stone house square, and having been in close contact with Selene before, recognizing her was no problem.

  But how could this little succubus appear in the contract slot? He distinctly remembered that contract slots could only bind magical beasts.

  Confused, Draven then looked toward the last contract slot. There, unmistakably, was the image of the black little serpent.

  He withdrew from the consciousness space and fixed his gaze on the black little serpent in front of him, its mouth still open and body covered in viscous slime.

  A thought arose in Draven's mind — for the first time, he tried to use the punitive ability of the forced contract. The black serpent curled and twisted in the slime, emitting a piercing, miserable scream.

  That sound was definitely that of the Serpent Ancestor from before!

  Draven was shocked. While continuing to torment the black serpent with contract power, he tried to communicate with the Eyebrow-Patterned King Serpent, hoping to figure out what exactly had happened.

  The Eyebrow-Patterned King Serpent was clearly clueless. It only felt its stomach was uncomfortable all along, completely unaware it had accidentally swallowed a strange little serpent.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  With no other choice, Draven turned his attention back to the black serpent covered in dirt, speaking human words and begging repeatedly for mercy.

  "What exactly are you?" he asked coldly.

  Draven stopped the punishment and stared sharply at the black serpent.

  If his guess was correct, this so-called Serpent Ancestor initially intended to take over his body but hadn't expected to be unexpectedly controlled by the forced contract.

  At this moment, the Serpent Ancestor truly had no words for its suffering. The battle with the succubus was full of twists and turns, constantly changing.

  At the final moment, the dark magic wolf suddenly appeared and ruined everything! Helpless, the Serpent Ancestor could only fake death and escape.

  Who would have thought that he was swallowed whole by the Eyebrow-Patterned King Serpent!

  At that time, the Serpent Ancestor was so weak that he had only a breath of life left—how could he have had the strength to resist the Eyebrow-Patterned King Serpent?

  If it weren't for his extremely strong willpower, which allowed him to stay conscious and struggle constantly to escape, he would have long since been digested completely by the Eyebrow-Patterned King Serpent.

  What was even more unexpected was that the Eyebrow-Patterned King Serpent actually spat him out from its stomach, giving him a chance at uncertain life or death.

  Before his eyes appeared a tall, muscular leader of the demi-human werewolf tribe.

  The malicious presence of the Serpent Ancestor, which had been residing inside his body, almost without hesitation tried to seize his body—forcefully taking over his consciousness and flesh.

  However, as soon as it invaded his consciousness space, a milky-white halo suddenly descended, like an invisible net, tightly imprisoning the Serpent Ancestor.

  Then the Serpent Ancestor suffered indescribable agony, pain so intense it was nearly unbearable. Only when the werewolf leader coldly asked questions did the torment cease.

  The black little serpent writhed painfully. The Serpent Ancestor could feel a powerful force of law binding him tightly.

  Now, not only could he not resist, he couldn't even tell a lie.

  "I am a divine general under the Beast God!" the Serpent Ancestor shouted fiercely.

  "Mortal, immediately remove your bindings on me, and I will spare your life," he tried to threaten in a cunning tone.

  He wanted to see if he could scare the other party with lies. The Serpent Ancestor was confident—after all, he had spent years thriving on deception and had accumulated plenty of experience.

  But to his surprise, the werewolf leader stared at him with a strange look, and then the painful torment struck again.

  The Serpent Ancestor screamed in agony.

  "Another Beast God?" Draven pondered the Serpent Ancestor's words. He knew the other party could not be lying.

  Could there be some special connection between himself and the Beast God?

  First there was the legendary wine steward octopus descendant, and now a divine general of the Beast God appeared—this all left Draven quite confused.

  But clearly, now was not the time to unravel these mysteries.

  After spitting out the Serpent Ancestor, the Eyebrow-Patterned King Serpent seemed noticeably relieved.

  This time it showed no hesitation and immediately spat out the injured Nightmare Horse as well.

  After a long while, the unconscious Nightmare Horse slowly woke up, shaking its body and shedding mud and slime.

  Draven carefully examined it and found that although the Nightmare Horse had shrunk and its breath weakened considerably, there were no obvious wounds on its body.

  This was the peculiarity of the Nightmare Horse. Unless the magical core in the beast's head was struck, even serious injuries would not cause immediate death.

  They could consume the stored magic power and accumulated death energy within their bodies to gradually heal wounds.

  Of course, before fully recovering, the injured Nightmare Horse still moved sluggishly and could not run as fast as usual.

  After confirming the Nightmare Horse could still carry him in flight, Draven finally breathed a sigh of relief.

  He glanced at the so-called divine general still struggling and begging on the ground and stopped punishing him.

  He asked a few simple questions and, after confirming that Selene would not find out, Draven lost interest.

  He told the serpent to find its own place and not to cause trouble, and that he would figure out what to do with it later when he had time.

  With the forced contract binding it, Draven was not worried about the Serpent Ancestor escaping.

  More importantly, its current aura was weaker than even ordinary beasts—it had no standing to cause trouble.

  Draven mounted the Nightmare Horse and his mind turned to more important matters—he needed to hurry and pick up Viola and the others.

  The Nightmare Horse could travel thousands of miles a day at incredible speed. Viola and her group had fled overnight, hastily evacuating with a group of kids.

  When Draven caught up with them, they had not yet left the Golden Monkey Tribe's territory.

  At the moment of reunion, Viola threw off all shyness and leapt into Draven's arms.

  Her face wore a smile, yet her eyes were filled with tears, with both tears and mucus smearing the werewolf leader's face.

  A group of kids chirped and chattered around them. Though they did not understand exactly what had happened, they could sense from Viola and her companions' expressions the gravity of the situation.

  These kids, some from the formerly enslaved Black Wolf Clan, others having fled the Fire Fox Tribe, were small but surprisingly reliable. They fled through the night without a single cry or fuss.

  After gathering the slaves, Draven lifted Viola onto the Nightmare Horse and waved his hand.

  "Let's go home!"