Archive - 009 (Patreon)

Chapter 009 – Companion

“Thank you.”

The words were spoken in an exhausted, but noble tone. Fang didn't have to guess, as he was sure that this was the voice of the Three-Tailed Spirit Fox. It had used its Beast Essence and soul force to transmit its thought to him, something only a ranked beast was capable of.

Unranked beasts couldn't control the essence in their core consciously, as they lacked the spiritual strength to do so. Only after reaching Rank One would their mind and spirit advance enough to control part of their Beast Essence by will, before that they could only fight using their bodies.

Hearing these words of gratitude, Fang allowed himself to slightly relax again. He knew that the Spirit Fox wasn't going to try and attack him for now.

As his mind relaxed, his soul force stopped streaming towards the One-Tailed Spirit Fox inside his Sea of Consciousness, causing its light to dim greatly until it returned to normal. Fang's pupils also returned to a human form, while his senses returned to normal.

Probing the situation inside his body with his soul force, caused him to sigh mentally. He was in no condition to fight right now. Several broken ribs, large tears and rips in his leg muscles and sinews along with hairline fractures in his leg bones, there were also some other minor internal injuries, though nothing really serious that would require immediate attention.

Sheathing his blades on his waist, Fang took out a bottle of high-grade healing pills that he had found in the space rings of the early Spiritual Stage cultivators, which had both died dueling each other.

Taking two pills from the jade bottle, Fang closed the bottle again and put it back in his storage rings before swallowing one and throwing the other towards the Three-Tailed Spirit Fox.

Taking out two low-grade spirit stones, Fang concentrated on healing his injuries as he used his soul force to guide the medical energies toward his legs. Healing the most pressing injuries that would allow him to continue to battle if necessary while recovering as much spirit essence as he could.

Fang knew that he was only temporarily safe in the clearing, even though the Three-Tailed Spirit Fox wouldn't attack him. Other predators wouldn't be able to resist coming here after some time passed. He had to at least restore his running capabilities, so he could leave as soon as possible.

Half an hour later Fang stood up, his legs mostly healed, though not enough to use his movement technique for now.

The Spirit Fox also seemed to have recovered from its external injuries somewhat and had already returned to the depth of its cave in the cliffside at the edge of the small clearing.

Fang knew that no matter its external injuries, the Spirit Fox wouldn't be able to live for more than a few days. And that was only if it didn't continue to draw on its Beast Essence to fight or pass it on to its child.

Approaching the carcass of the Two-Clawed Black Python, Fang directly stored it in his spatial ring, before he went and grabbed the Teleportation Rune.

Turning towards the cave, Fang sent his own sound transmission into the cave using his spirit essence and soul force. It was a rather simple technique, that only required enough control over one's energies. Luckily that was where Fang excelled the most.

"It won't be long before some other beasts come here looking for a chance to acquire your beast core. Next time you won't be able to survive, nor will your child.", Fang transmitted.

There was a short silence before he once again heard the noble female voice of the Spirit Fox.

“You want to take my child away?”, the Three-Tailed Spirit Fox answered calmly, although the weakness in its voice was obvious.

"Your child has the potential to reach the ranked stages easily. Letting it end up in the stomach of some unranked beast would be a shame, not to mention a waste, after you have sacrificed so much for it.", Fang answered unreservedly.

“Are you willing to bind it to yourself as a companion?”, the Spirit Fox inquired seriously, which caused Fang to grow silent.

There was a wide berth between taking in a beast as a pet or taking in a beast as a companion. A normal beast pet had to be subdued with strength and would receive a soul mark so it wouldn't go against its master's orders, additionally, the owner could always locate the beast with the help of the mark.

A companion beast was something entirely different.

Different from the master-pet hierarchy, taking in a companion beast would mean acknowledging the beast as an equal. The soul mark was also different and would be placed on both parties, forming a bond that was unbreakable by anything other than death itself. It would allow for telepathic communication and sensing each other's locations.

It also prevented either party from harming the other consciously. And in case that either the beast or the cultivator died, the other party's soul would suffer a severe blow. For beasts, this might lead to them losing part of their spiritual intelligence while a cultivator might be crippled and unable to cultivate anymore.

Generally speaking, a cultivator would only have one companion beast in his life and would only choose one with great potential. Most cultivators didn't have a companion beast exactly because it was very difficult to find a beast with great potential.

There were of course some great sects and clans that would tame and breed beasts so that their members could receive companion beasts with great potential the moment they stepped onto the road of cultivation, but it was an arduous and ungrateful task as the newborn beasts often did not inherit their parent's potential even after feeding them all kinds of treasures.

So, while for everyone else on the Blue Sky Planet, a beast with the inborn potential to reach the ranked stages would be considered a treasure, Fang was different.

A ranked beast could at most match a low-level Spiritual Stage cultivator, while his goal lay far beyond the Spiritual Stage entirely. This meant that later on, this kind of companion beast would become a burden unless he could help it advance its potential to greater stages.

Sighing to himself, Fang knew that his decision had already been made when he decided to interfere in the battle between the Three-Tailed Spirit Fox and the Two-Clawed Black Python.

“I am.”, he answered with conviction.

“Then come.”, echoed the answer from the Spirit Fox in Fang's ears.

Moving towards the cave, Fang took out some formation flags and planted them near the cave entrance to seal it and prevent others from discovering and entering the cave. These flags were also found in the Elder's spatial ring that he had found in the cave and were rather common items for cultivators who planned to adventure outside.

Of course, the word 'common' was subjective, as the first two spatial rings he had found didn't contain such items. It had taken Fang some days to figure out their proper use even with the Archive, as their positioning and chosing the right kind of runes suitable for differnt terrains was more related to experience than knowledge.

Either way, after he was done setting up the small isolation formation, he walked deeper into the cave.

Luminous crystals were embedded into the cave walls preventing the darkness to hinder Fang's sight as he advanced.

After a few moments, he came across the actual cave, which was only a few meters in diameter. Furs of different beasts were scrunched together to form a comfortable nest on the cave floor, and on it, Fang saw a small white fox, its body no longer than his own arm with three beautiful tails of the same length, some bloodstains staining its otherwise pristine fur.

This was the real form of the Three-Tailed Spirit Fox.

The former massive figure that had fought against the Two-Clawed Black Python was just an innate shape-shifting ability it had used called Illusion Body.

Such abilities could be used even without the beast being at the ranked stage, as it didn't require them to consciously control their Beast Essence, but only trigger the ability in their bloodline. Though it was rather rare for an ordinary beast to have an innate ability without possessing a powerful ancestry.

The Spirit Fox's eyes were closed and Fang could sense its weakness through the aura it emitted with his soul force.

Its tails that were curled up next to its body suddenly shifted and revealed a palm-sized furry ball, which was pressed up against the Spirit Fox's body - it was its offspring.

“Use the companion seal.”, the frail voice of the fox mother sounded out again.

As he had already decided to do so, Fang didn't hesitate. Taking out a long needle, he pricked the tip of his index finger and used his spirit essence and soul force to extract more blood while he moved his hand through the air and drew a rune.

The companion seal was a relatively simple rune to begin with, so it didn't take long before the glaring blood-red rune floating in front of Fang was finished. Controlling the rune with his soul force to move it to the side and keeping it stable, Fang carefully placed his hand on the palm-sized fox cub and grabbed one of its hindlegs to prick it with the needle and extract a drop of blood.

This caused the cub to emit a barely audible cry of pain and surprise, which made its mother tense up even though she knew this to be necessary.

Using his soul force to infuse the blood drop into the rune, the rune gave off a bright red glow before shrinking rapidly.

Erupting in two streaks of light, the rune dissipated as one of the lights flew directly to Fang's forehead and entered his Sea of Consciousness, while the other light dot did the same to the fox cub.

Fang could see the cub shifting uncomfortably, but with the gentle nudging of its mother's tails and muzzle, it soon calmed down. A few moments later Fang felt the light dot 'settling in' in his mind, as it changed into a small red rune that looked exactly like the companion seal he had drawn out before.

This signified the successful creation of the companion bond.

“Her name is Yue.”, the Spirit Fox told him.

“And yours?”, Fang asked.

" … Ling ... Yours?"

“Fang.”

“Take good care of my child, Fang. I will watch both of you from the river of dreams.”, the Three-Tailed Spirit Fox said feebly. Suddenly a silver light flowed from Ling's body into Yue's body and the last embers of her life flickered out.

Yue seemed to have sensed her mother's death, as she started to emit barely audible, heart-breaking cries. Fang himself had difficulties keeping his emotions in check, as he watched that display of pure motherly love.

“I will.”, Fang whispered aloud, even though he knew that there wouldn't be an answer.

Carefully scooping up the palm-sized Three-Tailed Spirit Fox, he brought Yue to his chest and comforted her with soothing sounds and gentle strokes for what felt like hours, before the tiny cub finally fell asleep from utter exhaustion.

Storing Ling's body in his spatial ring with the intention to bury her later on, Fang also put away all the furs as they had great value, not to mention that they still carried Ling's scent which might make it easier for Yue to cope with her mother's death in the following weeks, before he moved back to the entrance of the cave.

Looking outside, he thankfully didn't see any beasts and a quick mental probe into the Archive assured him that there wasn't any dangerous presence near the cave.

This type of scrying naturally had its limits, as Fang couldn't glmipse at existences that greatly surpassed his own strength. But considering that this was the Wilderness, it was highly unlikely that he would come across such a powerhouse in this part of the forest.

Taking back his formation flags, Fang directly executed the Flowing Step to move towards the inheritance cave, still cradling Yue to his chest and making sure that he had covered them both with his Heaven Deceiving Technique.

…

A month had passed since that day, a month Fang had mostly spent taking care of Yue, drawing Paralyzing Runes, and using the Illusionary Killing Array to gain a handle on his newly awakened blade intent.

It was that blade intent that had made his attacks so devastating in his fight against the Two-Clawed Black Python, coupled with his Mortal-Rank blades. Without either, Fang doubted that he could have broken through the python's tough scales that easily.

Still, it proved to be quite a challenge to gain proper control of this blade intent though, as he had problems even using it at will.

From the Archive, he knew that entering as many battles as possible was the fastest way to gain control over one's weapon intent, and using the Illusionary Killing Array was less effective than real combat.

On that occasion, he had also discovered that his mastery over the Third Step, the Compression Step, had increased greatly even though it still couldn't quite reach the intermediate realm.

With Yue being incredibly clingy after her mother's death though, Fang didn't dare to enter real combat to improve for the time being, lest she got hurt.

Most of the time Yue stayed in his robes while napping, it was only when she was hungry or had to take care of her business that she was willing to leave the comfortable warmth of his clothes. After several weeks Fang had already gotten used to it and found it rather endearing.

He had also been busy crafting Paralyzing runes with the beast corpses he had gathered from his last trip outside. This time though, he didn't have to use his dagger to draw the runes, but could inscribe them directly with his soul force, which resulted in a qualitative leap when it came to the end product.

Fang had been preparing dozens of runes for his attempt at ranking up his spirit and had neglected his cultivation for the time being, as the stronger he was the less effective the runes would be.