At Lu Zhao's twelfth Contract Awakening Ceremony, the contract-testing platform once again showed twelve red lights: a death contract. He was sentenced to three days in the beast pens, after which he would be disposed of with the discarded beasts. Huo Xiao publicly bet ten thousand gold that Lu Zhao wouldn't survive three days. As Lu Zhao was dragged into the beast pens, the white-furred, zero-rank cub in a cage bit through a rusty iron bar, squeezed out, and clung to his chest, refusing to let go. A thick black iron collar, its clasp rusted shut, circled its neck.
