Red wasn’t unfamiliar with the process of taming an animal, but all his knowledge came from books. That being said, a monster and a common animal weren’t the same thing, and you might need to put much more effort into the former than with the latter. It could take weeks, maybe even months of training.

Did Red have this kind of time?

Aurelia seemed to be able to guess his thoughts. “It’s your choice in the end. All I can say is that I have never heard of a snake with six eyes, which means that it must be a rather rare species of monster, or at least a mutated one. If you can rear it into the future, who knows how useful it will be for you once it grows up?”

Red frowned. While he was interested in the idea, it seemed like too much of an investment right now. Not to mention, he didn’t even know if it was going to work.

It just wasn’t feasible.

‘Unless…’

Red stared at the struggling snake with a thoughtful gaze. It was still trying to squeeze the youth’s arm, despite not being able to even budge it.

Aurelia seemed impatient while waiting on the side. “What are you planning on doing?”

“I have a plan.” Red said.

There was one curious aspect of the power given to him by the crimson mist that the youth never explored too much. This aspect was the apparent repelling effect the crimson energy had towards monsters in general.

The only two times Red ever saw it in action was while he was escaping from the underground and when he was inside the trial. Back then, even the enormous lightning serpent was driven into a rage by that power, and he was able to cross the misty horde of monsters who all fled before him. However, he failed to achieve such an effect again over the years, probably because his blood lacked the same power it had back then, just after absorbing the lizard demon’s blood essence, and also because the crimson being inside his body was never forced again into action to save him.

However, recently Red noticed a change. It happened when the chicken underwent demonification, and the youth was somehow able to pacify it as if it was a natural thing. Even now, he wasn’t sure how he did that, or if this process worked on non-demonic monsters, but it was worth putting it to the test.

Red brought the serpent closer to his face.

“What are you doing?” Aurelia asked with a frown.

Red didn’t respond. Instead, he gave an intense stare to the serpent, hoping for something to happen.

All he got, though, was an angry hiss from the monster.

Aurelia scoffed from the side. “Are you going to stare it into submission?”

Red frowned. He expected some kind of familiar feeling to come to him at that moment, but no such thing happened. Maybe this wasn’t something he could control, or maybe it only worked on demons like he thought.

‘Or maybe…’

Red had an idea. With some struggle, as he only had one hand free, he pulled back the sleeve on his right arm, revealing the bracelet the hawk gave him a long time ago. Without hesitation, the youth unclasped it from his wrist.

“What in the hell are you doing?” Aurelia looked at him as if he was an idiot.

“I’m trying something.” Red ignored her protests.

Once the bracelet was off, he felt a shimmer around the right side of his face. He didn’t need a mirror to know the crimson scales and lizard-like eye on his face were revealed once more.

After that, Red stared at the snake again.

The reaction was almost immediate. The monster’s hiss died in its throat as its eyes trained onto Red’s gaze. It froze, its grip around Red’s arm slackening.

For a few seconds, the youth thought the creature had died. Yet, he could feel this wasn’t the case by its fluctuation. Then, finally, the creature showed some reaction.

It looked away from Red’s face and closed its open maw. Then it just stood there, body coiled around the youth’s arms, without any reaction other than flicking its forked tongue now and then.

It was impossible for Red to discern the creature’s mood from its expression, but its body language and fluctuation told the youth that it was displaying some sort of obedience.

Aurelia stared at the scene in shock. “What did you do?”

Red frowned. “I’m not too sure.”

He was being honest. He didn’t really feel the same sensation that he felt when he tried calming down the demonic chicken, so he wasn’t sure if what happened between both creatures was related.

Aurelia looked over at him with curiosity. “It must be that eye of yours. It probably thinks you are some sort of superior reptilian creature.”

It was the only thing that made sense.

One needed to understand that not all demonifications were the same, as in, not every demon would sprout out crimson scales and other reptilian characteristics. Depending on the source of corruption, the symptoms of demonification could vary wildly. Red’s own demonification, for instance, seemed to conjure itself in reptilian characteristics, which were very often correlated with extreme violence, rage, and blood.

As for monsters, they were creatures of instinct. They would naturally submit to beasts stronger than they, as long as they were of a similar species. Red assumed this was what the snake was doing.

Still, looking over this dangerous creature, the youth didn’t really feel safe to let it go.

He looked over at Aurelia. “What should I do now?”

“Well, it seems you have it tamed, which is the hardest part.” the woman said. “Teach it some commands now.”

Red frowned. “How?”

Aurelia scoffed. “Have you never read any books on training monsters? It’s all about positive reinforcement! Give it some food when it obeys you, and scold it when it doesn’t!”

Red was at a loss for words. “… It’s a snake, not a dog.”

“Just because it’s a snake doesn’t mean you can’t teach it! It’s a monster, first and foremost. It’s smarter than any common animal out there, so it will obviously understand what you want from it.”

Red was skeptical. He looked down at the snake, staring at its unfocused and menacing six eyes which seemed to be gazing at nothing in particular.

“Look at me.” he said in a commanding voice.

The snake completely ignored him.

Red spoke up again, with distinct tones and words to try to get the serpent’s attention. Nothing worked, and the snake continued to look at nothing at all.

In the end, he gave up and looked at Aurelia with a frown.

The woman shrugged. “Maybe it’s deaf. Either way, I never said it was going to be easy to train it.”

Red sighed. “We’ll try again once I have some food to compel it.”

The youth clasped the bracelet around his wrist again, disguising his demonification. Then he looked back at the snake.

It didn’t seem like the creature was displaying any more aggressive behavior even after he hid his demonic eye, but Red would be a fool to trust an animal and let it free. He decided to tie the creature’s mouth shut with some pieces of his clothing, so that if it decided to attack him, at least the youth wouldn’t get injected with some unknown venom.

Only after he was certain the creature’s mouth was shut tight did he decide to let it go of his grip. Unexpectedly, the creature didn’t try to run away, and it instead crawled up Red’s arm, coiling around his neck and shoulder. The youth was uncomfortable with this position, to say the least, but he could tell through the beast’s fluctuation that it didn’t mean him any harm.

Aurelia smiled. “Look, it is already this comfortable around you. It will be no problem to train it, and in the future, once it grows up and breaks through to the Lesser Ring Realm, you will have another trick up your sleeve.”

Red sighed. “I hope so. Still, it will be another matter to keep it hidden while I’m in…”

The youth trailed off. The serpent’s fluctuation vanished from his senses.

Red still felt the snake’s weight around his shoulder, so he looked down in a hurry at the beast. It had changed colors, completely camouflaged with the youth’s black clothing. Even from this close, Red would have almost missed it if it wasn’t for his dark vision.

“Impressive.” Aurelia looked at the beast with surprise. “Even I need to focus my Spiritual Sense to detect it. If I didn’t know where it was, I definitely would have missed it. It’s a perfect stealthy monster!”

Red frowned. He would be happy with this too if it wasn’t for the fact not even he could detect the creature while it was in this state.

The youth gave the chamber one last thorough search. He looked into the now broken egg, and like the woman said, there was nothing inside of it to indicate how the snake had sealed it shut again.

After making sure he didn’t miss anything, Red looked back at Aurelia. “We are leaving.”

The woman raised her eyebrows. “You know you don’t really need to say that to me, right? I am a ghost. I can just disappear and reappear anywhere I want as long as it’s within the range of the core.”

Red shook his head. “It’s better for the both of us if I treat it like that isn’t the case.”

Aurelia frowned, but didn’t say anything else.

The youth turned around and walked out of the cave. The snake coiled in his shoulder shivered slightly under the sun’s light, which it was probably feeling for the first time. However, it remained calm on Red’s shoulders, or so he thought, since he couldn’t really see it.

The youth found Aurelia waiting for him outside while sitting on a tree stump.

“Are you going back to the town?” she asked.

Red looked at her. “I plan to, after I recover.”

Aurelia scoffed. “That place is too small for you now that you have opened all your acupoints. Your development will be hindered as long as you stay there.”

“I have my responsibilities.”

“Are those responsibilities worth following through if they get you killed?”

Red frowned. “I need some time.”

Aurelia sighed. “I’m sure you do. Just be aware that the longer you stay there, the harder it will be when you finally want to leave.”

The woman’s figure suddenly disappeared.

Red knew that she was right. In the past, what bound him to this place was the need for shelter and a peaceful environment where he could cultivate. It wasn’t meant to be a permanent home.

Now that he opened all his twelve veins, Red outgrew the need for the sect’s shelter. His priorities would now be to find the remaining materials for the Parting Storm formation, something that would most likely be impossible to accomplish inside of this town. However, how could Red just leave his sect?

He made promises to people that he intended to see through. Yet, he also knew that the longer he waited in here, the harder it would be to continue his cultivation journey. In his mind, Red then made a promise to himself this time.

He would remain in the sect until Allen opened his Spiritual Sea and could look after himself and the rest of his sect members. After that, Red would leave, whether Hector allowed it or not.

He would not suffer the same fate as Narcha in this place.