Initially, Caesar was just an ordinary wolf that Lang Ga brought back for Shao Xuan as food, but Shao Xuan didn’t eat him and raised him instead.
Speaking of which, Caesar didn’t have special blood flowing through his veins like Cha Cha did. He was a fearsome beast because Shao Xuan helped transform him into one.
Now, Caesar had lost an eye. Shao Xuan was about to give him a new eye, but he was not sure whether the merge would succeed. Regardless, he had to give it a try.
Shao Xuan broguht Caesar to a mountain far off from the rest of the tribe. The ground here was not suitable for agriculture, and the quality of the rocks here were not decent either. The rocks here were not suitable for making weapons, and no wanderers lived here. Usually, only a few patrolling soldiers would stop by here to rest.
When Shao Xuan came, there was a group of patrolling soldiers resting here. Seeing Shao Xuan, those people immediately greeted him, and after learning that Shao Xuan had business here, they descended the mountain immediately without asking any questions. However, they didn’t walk far and guarded nearby to prevent people from coming over to disturb them.
Caesar was still doubtful. Even though he could understand their language quite well, Shao Xuan didn’t tell him much, so he was still confused about what was going on. There was a hunting team dispatched today, but he didn’t get to follow.
Shao Xuan brought out the scroll that had all the important notes written on it, and reread it once more. Even though he had read it a couple times on his way back on the ship, he made sure to read everything over again before he started. In his mind, he pictured the steps of the merging process that was about to begin.
“Alright, come here and lay down,” Shao Xuan called out to Caesar.
Caesar was already a massive beast. As he laid on the ground, his back was still as tall as most ordinary people, so it was needless to say how tall he was if he stood up. Shao Xuan was going to help him merge with his new eye, so he had to stay low.
Although he didn’t understand what Shao Xuan was about to do, Caesar followed obediently. He laid flat on the ground and set his head low between his paws.
Shao Xuan removed the blindfold that was covering his right eye. There was no eyeball inside its socket. The eyelid there was slightly folded inwards, and his upper eyelid had remained shut for a long time. His injuries from the previous year had already recovered, and the injuries on his body now were all new. They were from recent hunts, but his right eye had always been blindfolded, so it didn’t get any new injuries.
“Caesar, this is a True Eye I got from the Jing tribe. The Jing people use this to grow a new eye,” Shao Xuan pointed at the bamboo tube in his hands.
Hearing about the “Eye”, Caesar’s ears moved as he looked expectantly at the bamboo tube.
“However, I’m not sure if it will work. People from foreign tribes can’t use it, but you’re a beast, not a human so this might not affect you. However, you’ve been marked with the Flaming Horn fire seed’s energy, so this might be a little risky, but we still have to give it a try. If it doesn’t work, then we’ll have to give up.”
Shao Xuan personally marked Caesar back then and imprinted him with the energy of the Flaming Horn totem. Caesar had been living in their tribe for so many years and participated in many of the sacrifices, so he naturally absorbed some of the fire seed’s energy. This was the only thing Shao Xuan was concerned about now. If the fire seed’s energy within him was too strong, then the repulsion would be more obvious, and the success rate would also be lower.
But he still had to give it a try.
Heaving a sigh, Shao Xuan opened up the bamboo case and took out the ground eye that was sealed with mud from within.
It was just as the Jing shaman had said. The ground eye meat could be preserved longer with the mud seal. Shao Xuan washed away the mud and untied the rope that was tightly bound around it. As he opened the shell, he noticed that the meat inside the ground eye was still as fresh as before. Nothing changed. He took out the ground eye meat and opened it. He then took out the True Eye from within.
After he washed the meat, Shao Xuan cut some of it and passed it to Caesar. “Eat this first.”
Caesar smelled its scent curiously and ate it right away.
Shao Xuan observed him for a while. Seeing no reaction, he fed Caesar the last bits of the meat.
After Caesar finished eating the rest of the meat, Shao Xuan slowly opened Caesar’s right eyelid. There was no eyeball inside, only some red flesh in his eye socket.
Caesar wasn’t inserting a third eye into the middle of his forehead like the Jing shaman, so he didn’t need to cut a slit open anywhere. With one hand, Shao Xuan kept Caesar’s right eye socket open. With the black True Eye in the other hand, he carefully inserted it into his eye socket and slowly pushed inwards.
Shao Xuan didn’t dare push it too far in.
If the True Eye caused too severe a reaction, then he had to extract it, as the Jing shaman had said.
After Shao Xuan inserted the True Eye into Caesar’s right eye socket and took two breaths of air, change started to take place around the black True Eye.
Inside Caesar’s right eye, all the flesh started to surround the black True Eye, and thin blood vessles grew around more than half of the eye. Besides the part that was still facing outward, the other sides around the True Eye were all blood vessels. Very soon, a white layer of membrane started to form where the blood vessels were, and started bulging.
“Roar—”
Caesar shook his head uncomfortably. Shao Xuan let go of him and asked, “Are you alright?”
The True Eye had already started changing. Was it working?
Caesar was just not used to the feeling. He wanted to use his paws to scratch his eye, but Shao Xuan held them down.
Then, Shao Xuan noticed that Caesar’s right eye was starting to bulge under his closed eyelids.
Caesar wanted to bang his head on the ground, but Shao Xuan stopped him again.
If these were the only reactions, then it was fine. The Jing shaman had mentioned the severe reactions after a failed merge. Caesar’s case didn’t look like he was experiencing a severe rejection.
This was a good sign.
Caesar probably also knew that something was changing within his right eye, and even though he felt uncomfortable, he held the pain in. When he couldn’t hold it in, he struggled for a while, but Shao Xuan was still holding him down.
A muddy fluid flowed out from Caesar’s right eye. Shao Xuan frowned, but he still saw no severe reactions, so he didn’t take any action yet. If Caesar couldn’t help struggling and was suffering too much from the pain, then he would consider forcefully extracting the True Eye.
The Jing shaman had also mentioned the muddy fluid that would flow out from his eyes. It happened to all the Jing people during their merging process, so it wasn’t abnormal.
The muddy substance dripped to the ground and was gradually absorbed into the earth. With the naked eye, people could observe how the grass that was growing there was suddenly dying and bending downwards. Very soon, the entire patch of grass wilted to the ground.
Seeing this, Shao Xuan’s eyebrows arched even higher. These were not normal tears. The Jing shaman had not mentioned this, but he also recalled not seeing much grass on the Jing property, so he could understand this even if the Jing shaman didn’t mention anything about it.
The muddy fluid continued to flow from Caesar’s eyes, but its colour was lightening. Soon, it was as transparent as normal tears, and these tears that had become diluted also stopped having such a strong effect on the grass. Shao Xuan breathed out a sigh of relief.
Everything seems to be going well so far?
Even so, Shao Xuan didn’t dare to take any risks. Just like the shaman had said, he had never heard of anyone putting a True Eye on a fearsome beast, much less a beast that had been marked with another tribe’s sign. He had to be careful throughout the entire process.
The tearlike substance stopped flowing from Caesar’s right eye. The initially bulging tissue under his eyelids also shrunk gradually. It wasn’t as swollen as before.
Checking Caesar’s perfect left eye, and then comparing it to his right, both sides seemed quite balanced now. There were no dents or bulges.
Shao Xuan wanted to try opening up Caesar’s eyelids on his right eye to check the progress, but the merging process was still ongoing, so Shao Xuan didn’t dare to take any risks. If he disturbed it in the middle of the process, he might waste all his previous effort.
Another half an hour passed. Caesar jerked suddenly and struggled in deep pain on the ground.
“Has the repulsion started?” Shao Xuan observed Caesar’s reactions closely. If it was indeed rejecting his body and causing him to react severely, then Shao Xuan would pull out the True Eye from his socket right away. Even though it might hurt Caesar, he knew that it might endanger Caesar’s life if he let it drag on any longer. The Jing shaman had reminded him about this.
But just as Shao Xuan reached his hand out, Caesar stopped struggling. His right eye moved slowly under his closed eyelids, as if he was trying to open his eyes.
After he lost his right eye, Caesar couldn’t even move his eyelids, not to mention open his eyes, but now he was trying to open his eyes, so this was a huge improvement. After his eyes struggled many times to open, his eyelids finally opened slowly.
In Caesar’s right eye socket, there was a white eyeball with a small black dot in the centre. The black dot was exactly the same size as the True Eye. Compared to the entire eyeball, the black dot in the centre was too small.
But very soon, the black dot in the centre sent out radial extensions of thickly intertwined threadlike fibres. A greyish colour extending from the black dot.
The grey fibres that were extending from the black dot widened, and simultaneously, the black dot was also enlarged at the pace of Caesar’s heartrate.
Shao Xuan had once thought, ‘How could such a small Eye change to fit Caesar’s large eyes?’
The Jing shaman told him that the True Eye had the ability to evolve to merge with the owner. What he was seeing now matched with what the shaman had told him.
Caesar’s right eye was gradually becoming complete. It became similar to his left eye, and as the pupil of his right eye widened, it was slowly matching with his left.
It was successful!
Seeing how Caesar’s right eye was slowly resembling his left, Shao Xuan could finally relax. He punched his fists with might. This was better than he had expected. Even though there was a reaction during the merging process, it was not severe, and he also succeeded.
Caesar was not used to his new right eye. He had been blind on the right for so long, and suddenly his field of vision expanded. He was a little confused at first, but later he became excited. He hopped cheerfully on the same spot and then lifted his head and howled in celebration.
“Awooo—-”
Under the mountain, the people who were patrolling looked up suspiciously when they heard the roar.
“Doesn’t Caesar sound a little... excited?” someone asked in the team.
“Caesar’s a good wolf, but it’s too bad that he lost an eye,” another person lamented.
“So what if he lost an eye? He can still hunt like before. That’s still quite impressive,” a younger warrior remarked.
“But he was a lot better when he had both eyes. It’s too bad.”
Some people still had things to say, but they stopped when they saw Shao Xuan coming over with Caesar.
Caesar was unusually excited today. He even purposely bumped into the patrolling soldiers as he passed by, but he didn’t use too much force. To the Flaming Horn warriors, it was just a friendly gesture.
The patrolling warriors played bumping with Caesar for a while before he left with Shao Xuan.
“What’s wrong,leader?” the person who was playing bumping with Caesar asking his team leader cheerfully.
He noticed his leader staring at the wolf that was walking away.
“Didn’t you guys notice?” their leader asked as he looked at the wolf.
“Notice what?”
“Caesar’s eyes!”
“Why do you keep looking at his eyes? Stop focusing on how he had lost his eye. Even if he’s just a wolf, he wouldn’t be happy if he heard it. Look at Caesar just now. His eyes......”
The person who was speaking suddenly halted.
Everyone else in the team was lost for words. They didn’t know what to say.
Damn!