Chapter 32
Translator: penny
Chapter: 32
Chapter Title: The Little Fox (1)
I noticed something odd about the Wood Spirit Lotus Fruit after consuming it, exactly one week later.
“?!”
I had been smoothly refining the Wood Spirit Lotus Fruit when I suddenly realized it was reacting abnormally due to some foreign contaminant. Startled, I hurriedly sent my divine sense into my soul.
Within my soul resided two spiritual roots.
One side held a vermilion-glowing single-origin spiritual power alongside a three-element spiritual root, while the other housed an auspicious golden spiritual power with a five-element spiritual root.
The Wood Spirit Lotus Fruit was settling into my dragon spiritual root as intended, being absorbed by the wood spiritual root. But for some reason, the foreign intruder from moments ago had thrown its energy into chaos, causing it to rampage wildly.
I rushed over to the Wood Spirit Lotus Fruit and examined it closely.
Up close, I could see an incredibly faint fox silhouette seeping into the fruit.
This was definitely the fox I had slain.
I hesitated for a moment, but realizing it couldn't harm me, I continued inspecting the Wood Spirit Lotus Fruit.
“......This isn't a fruit at all?”
I'd been misled by the name. I should have questioned why something fruit-like resembled a glass orb...... But since this was a cultivation world, I figured weird fruits existed and let it slide.
I discovered an underdeveloped, tiny fox curled up inside the Wood Spirit Lotus Fruit.
“It was a fox egg! That's why it could elevate spiritual root aptitude even for someone like me—a heavenly treasure born from a Nascent Soul beast's egg!”
A treasure capable of enhancing spiritual root aptitude couldn't be ordinary, but I never imagined it was an egg.
Upon closer inspection, it wasn't just any egg. For whatever reason, this was an unhatched egg where the beast had died trapped inside—a stillborn.
The fox inside the Wood Spirit Lotus Fruit had a fully formed shape yet remained utterly still, not twitching even as its spiritual energy was drained away.
'Still only at Foundation Establishment, I couldn't shatter the Nascent Soul fox's nascent soul. Did its bodiless nascent soul get drawn to the corpse inside the Wood Spirit Lotus Fruit?'
But the fox I killed had been so decrepit that, despite being Nascent Soul realm, it couldn't even use proper divine abilities. How intact could its nascent soul really be?
A dead, unhatched fox corpse and a born-but-decayed nascent soul stripped of power.
I watched as those two merged into one within me. Unable to intervene, all I could do was observe.
A month later, the fox's nascent soul and corpse fully fused, accelerating the Wood Spirit Lotus Fruit's absorption into me.
Three months in, the entire fruit had been absorbed. The shed shell of a fox, realizing it couldn't yet move in its immature body, sought a new haven and slipped into my single-origin spiritual power.
As it accepted my single-origin spiritual power, the fox began recovering its immature form. Shocked by the spiritual power draining from me at an alarming rate, I snapped my eyes open.
“Ugh...! No! If this keeps up, it'll suck me dry of all my spiritual power and kill me!”
I needed to replenish spiritual power from outside...!
“Junior Sister Ahan! Junior Sister Ahan!!”
I desperately called for Ahan, who had likely fled somewhere. Strangely, my voice boomed terrifyingly loud, echoing throughout the sect ruins. Startled by my summons, Ahan rushed into the warehouse.
Apparently, despite me not calling her, she'd stayed in the sect ruins for months, waiting for me.
Grateful for her loyalty, I quickly said,
“Find me a cultivation site rich in fire, water, and wood spiritual qi—right now!”
“......! Fortunately, I've been scouting these sect ruins the past few months. I know just the place!”
Relieved, I entrusted myself to Ahan, who soared into the air with wind escape art, carrying me somewhere.
The spot Ahan brought me to seemed a more central area of the sect ruins. Overflowing with astonishing amounts of five-phase spiritual qi, I sat in meditation with peace of mind and began drawing it in.
With the fox sucking away my spiritual power on top, I absorbed an unbelievable quantity of spiritual qi—far beyond what a Foundation Establishment cultivator should manage.
Refining single-origin spiritual power normally took considerable time, but not now.
The fox craved more single-origin spiritual power, bolstering my dragon spiritual root in the process. Thanks to it, the dragon root produced single-origin spiritual power at an unbelievable speed, which the fox devoured greedily.
The earth and metal spiritual qi unnecessary for single-origin power flowed into my metal spiritual root instead, refining into Five Skandhas Enlightenment Art spiritual power.
“Heavens......”
Ahan, shocked by my sudden massive intake of spiritual qi, hurriedly retreated to avoid getting caught in it.
“Ughhh!!”
As the fox demanded more, I drew in even greater amounts. Taking in more spiritual qi than my spiritual roots could handle brought tearing pain.
But as my spiritual roots began to fray and the Three Lives Single Origin Art teetered on collapse, blood poured endlessly from my mouth.
“Cough...!!”
What saved me was the fox.
Knowing it would die without me, it melted parts of its forming body into my spiritual roots, strengthening them.
Seeing this, I cooperated by drawing in even more spiritual qi to aid the process.
Thus, the fox and I worked for each other. Half a year later, my spiritual roots had doubled in size, allowing me to effortlessly absorb and refine vast quantities without strain.
How long did that last?
“......!”
I felt the sensation of breaking through a minor boundary and finally shattered the barrier from Foundation Establishment layer 2 to layer 3.
Now at layer 3, I had no time to celebrate or stabilize before plunging back into refining the endless influx of spiritual qi.
The fox seemed to be struggling; growing a Nascent Soul-grade body with only Foundation Establishment power wasn't going smoothly.
I seized the opportunity, using the fox as a training aid to keep pushing my realm higher.
Was the fox's spiritual nature influencing me too? Past breakthroughs had always been grueling.
Like arduously climbing a tall mountain—slipping on mistakes, stumbling over rocks, groaning in frustration, barely cresting one ridge.
But now it was different.
Like a bird soaring through the sky, I smoothly vaulted over the peaks. Within months, I reached Foundation Establishment layer 4.
“Foundation Establishment layer 4......! Heavens!”
I heard Ahan's cry of astonishment.
At the same time, now that layer 4 strengthened my control over spiritual power, I felt the fox trembling again.
Short on power to grow its body and unable to wrest free the spiritual power I gripped tightly for my breakthrough, nothing was going right—it writhed in agony.
The fox struggled to steal spiritual power from me but held back its full strength, aware that wrecking my spiritual roots would endanger itself too.
'It probably never meant to end up inside me in the first place.'
I hadn't sensed the nascent soul entering me until after it contacted the corpse and regained awareness.
In other words, even the fox had unintentionally entered me and was now desperately clinging to life.
'It's at a disadvantage in every way. Time to keep cultivating.'
Breakthroughs coming so easily had me hooked. Even my metal spiritual root, which I'd neglected, had climbed toward layer 3 on earth and metal spiritual power alone.
Let's go! Layer 5! And layer 3 for metal!
Each time I advanced, the fox's movements slowed.
It wasn't dead. It had just stabilized its current body somehow and was biding its time to escape me.
'Fat chance. You think I'll let you go?'
Once it fully formed its body, it wouldn't make such a great training tool anymore. But this was a congenital Nascent Soul spirit beast.
Without beast-taming talent, I couldn't domesticate it normally. Yet in this near-fused state, I could use a soul pact like Ahan's to claim it as my spirit beast.
I couldn't let this fortuitous encounter slip—a Nascent Soul spirit beast in my grasp.
'Foundation Establishment layer 5. Once I hit layer 5, no more greed—attempt the soul pact immediately.'
Dragging it out too long might let it stabilize its body and slip away.
Assessing the situation, I sank my mind deep and immersed myself in cultivation again.
I successfully broke my metal spiritual root to layer 3, then focused everything on advancing the dragon root.
Time flew by in focused cultivation.
I forgot my worries—the fox, Mun Yoo, the uncertainty of ascension within 10,000 years—sensing only my growth.
Immersed in feeling myself, the inflowing spiritual qi coalescing into spiritual power, then refining into single-origin spiritual power.
About two years after leaving the comfy High Heaven Sect for these ruins.
I finally reached my goal: Foundation Establishment layer 5.
The instant I broke through, I snapped my eyes open and shouted,
“Junior Sister Ahan!”
“We're starting the soul pact now! Deploy the formation!”
I infused divine sense into Ahan and issued the command. My first coercive order as master of the Soul Servant Oath.
Though bewildered, Ahan swiftly moved to lay out the formation for the soul pact. I immediately attempted to forcibly contract the fox inside me.
The fox was currently sucking up massive amounts of my spiritual power to grow its body. Compatibility between us was naturally perfect.
The fox tried to evade the soul pact, but the single-origin spiritual power forming its body accepted it all too naturally. Thus, I effortlessly enslaved a congenital Nascent Soul spirit beast.