I never upgrade

Chapter 54 Escaping the Starting Village

But time waits for no one, so Xu Lun shouted at it:

"Hey! What are you dawdling for? Are you waiting for someone to treat you to grilled wild boar? Hurry up and get on, we have to go!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Luca stopped in his tracks in the dungeon and looked up.

Although it couldn't see what was above from this angle, it understood what Xu Lun meant. So, instead of circling around, it sat down, observed the surrounding walls, chose its climbing route, and then leaped down—

It leaped nearly 3 meters high, its front paws gripping a protrusion on the earthen wall, its hind legs immediately following up, stepping on the same protrusion, and then its front paws pounced upwards again, while its hind legs exerted force, unleashing an amazing leap!

Luca's body was like a spring, stretching and contracting in the air, perfectly showcasing the power and agility of a feline, with an elegant posture that possessed a wild beauty.

Then--

Because its front paws failed to grip the edge of the pit, it stumbled and tumbled down into it.

With a "bang!", Luca fell back into the dungeon, and a cloud of dust immediately rose from the pit.

"..."

The entire room fell silent.

Xu Lun stared blankly, unsure of what to say, utterly dumbfounded.

Zhang Yuan reacted quite quickly. With Xu Lun as a "gem" to follow, the outrageous behavior of the Cloud Leopard wasn't so surprising.

He said, "Why don't we bring a ladder over?"

This dungeon naturally has ladders; otherwise, how would the people who dug the pit have gotten up?

But Xu Lun immediately rejected him:

"No need, let's have another one!"

Xu Lun then glared at Luca in the dungeon and warned:

"I refuse to believe it... If you can't get up here, you can stay here by yourself!"

Luca's pointed ears twitched, his neck stretched, and he looked up at the exit with a bewildered expression—what does this mean? If I can't climb up, I'll have to stay here for the rest of my life, spending my life in jail?

It shook its large head, quickly rallied, and devised a new escape route. Then, it crouched down, gathered its strength, and launched itself into the air.

This time, it learned its lesson and didn't try to use the momentum to jump around repeatedly like before. Instead, it rushed straight up!

With its nimble body and strong forelimbs, it quickly climbed to the edge of the pit, and this time its front paws firmly gripped the edge, and it looked like it was about to climb out—

As a result, his hind leg slipped and he lost his footing, causing his whole body to fall downwards.

"Meow!"

Luca let out a defiant roar, scratching frantically with its front paws, but it couldn't hold onto the wall and eventually slid to the bottom.

Xu Lun's lips twitched violently twice. After thinking for a long time, he still didn't know what to say.

Luca then tried to climb several more times, but failed each time. Especially on the last attempt, it probably ran out of energy and fell halfway down, panting heavily with its tongue lolling out.

Xu Lun couldn't bear to watch any longer. Not only him, but Zhou Bo and the others couldn't stand it either. Just as they were about to speak, Xu Lun himself said:

"Oh well, let's go get the ladder."

He shook his head helplessly, but couldn't help but think to himself:

"No wonder you were so easily captured by these natives... You've really embarrassed yourself... People who don't know better would think I didn't heal you properly..."

Xu Lun couldn't help but think of the evil white tiger he had encountered before. It seemed that Luka knew that guy, but the difference in their strength was like heaven and earth. He didn't know how Luka managed to get by.

Soon, Old Wu had someone bring over a long wooden ladder, which was slowly lowered down and secured.

Then, Luca climbed up the ladder step by step. When it first came up, it had its head drooping and its ears hanging down. It looked very depressed, as if it had done something wrong, and it didn't dare to look Xu Lun in the eye.

Xu Lun kept a straight face. Although Luca's performance had indeed disappointed him, the most important thing was to take this opportunity to leave with him.

So even when it's just acting, Xu Lun has to keep pretending to be very angry.

"Useless thing..."

He first casually cursed Luca, then turned to look at Old Wu, chuckled, and resumed his leader's demeanor, saying:

"Alright, Uncle Wu, if there's nothing else, we'll be going now."

Originally, since my pet was injured by you for no reason, I should have settled accounts with you and asked for some compensation.

However, seeing how poor this village is, even if I wanted it, you couldn't afford to pay for it. So, being a magnanimous person, I'll waive the compensation for you.

As for settling scores, there were a few houses that caught fire before. Although it was unintentional, consider it a lesson I'm giving you. Don't say I'm unreasonable, understand?

"Speaking of which, that real man-eating monster was supposed to come and massacre the village tonight, but I stopped it and drove it away. Everyone in your village now owes me a life, Uncle Wu, you won't deny that, will you?"

Upon hearing this, Old Wu immediately bowed and solemnly said:

"The kindness shown to you, sir, will be forever etched in the hearts of the people of Zulu Village, generation after generation, and we will never forget it!"

Xu Lun smiled and nodded, quite satisfied with the result.

Not far away, Zhou Bo and his group looked puzzled, especially Zhou Bo himself, whose brows were furrowed and whose face was full of suspicion as he secretly pondered:

"Could I have guessed wrong? Is this cloud leopard a pet he keeps?"

Indeed, the high-ranking officials and nobles in the city-states had a penchant for keeping wild beasts. The fiercer and rarer the beasts they kept, the more it highlighted their power and status.

Once upon a time, his father had even considered raising a Azure Vulture as the Cloud Guard's guardian beast and spiritual totem, to demonstrate the powerful strength of Cloud Capital's defense.

But keeping a cloud leopard as a pet... isn't anything special, nor does it have any prestige; it's more like having the rich man's foolish son...

Just as Zhou Bo was pondering, he heard Xu Lun say:

"Oh, right, I just remembered something..."

He reached into his pocket, felt around, and then pulled out all the animal teeth at once, showing them to Old Wu:

"Although I said I didn't want compensation, your thirty-year-old Daughter's Red wine is really good. Anyway, there's not much left, so just give it all to me!"

Also, prepare some dry rations for me to eat on the road. Of course, I won't take them for free; you can have all these animal teeth!

Anyway, I don't need to keep it.

That's true. It's not that Xu Lun was deliberately being generous, but he really didn't have much use for these animal teeth. Before he came, Station Master Huang had told him that these animal teeth were the common currency in Zulu Village, but he was about to leave. If he went to the city-state, these animal teeth would become worthless, so he might as well spend them all here.