บท 60: First Encounter (3)

The shining golden eyes looked up at the girl still stroking it's fur, most of it dyed with varying shades of red. Rong Jian, who had been standing behind Shen Tianyu during the fight, was completely ignored by the girl and beast, making him want to cry. (1)

"Err... Is it over?" Rong Jian asked, interrupting the pair. Shen Tianyu nodded. The white wolf was still reeling in shock and didn't seem to hear Rong Jian. Rong Jian had asked this but didn't approach closer, not wanting to disturb the white wolf, instead going to sit at another nearby tree.

"Are you feeling better?" Shen Tianyu asked the wolf as she stroked it's fur. The wolf nodded as if it was human. "That's good." She replied. "Can you tell me why you are here?"

The white wolf was hesitant but, unlike humans, he knew to repay his benefactor. He had been injured and poisoned by her, but he had attacked first. Like other humans, she could have left him to die but instead, she gave him antidotes to the poison and medicine to stop the bleeding. The only problem was...

The wolf let out a soft whine. [How am I supposed to tell you? I can't speak human and you don't speak wolf.]

"It is fine. Even if I don't know what you are saying, I can still understand at least half of it." She assured. She had always been closer to more animals than humans and has the ability to connect to them psychologically. In this way, even if she can't understand the animal, she can feel what they are trying to convey, just like now.

The white wolf then told her his story with Rong Jian sitting on the side, staring at the girl and beast along with another figure up in the trees.

'She always had a way with animals too...' The figure thought.

It was actually a mountainous Snow Wolf but had been chased out by it's clan when it had been falsely accused by one of it's own clansmen. And being an orphan, the older clansmen already didn't like him leeching off them so they used the incident as a good excuse to kick him out. He wondered around for a long while before he found the Forest of Broken Corpses and settled there. This was before Jing Qie was founded and with him looking like a fox, it had soon become the "resident of demonic foxes". Protective of it's territory, the Snow Wolf had killed anyone that entered, but he didn't think he'd meet Shen Tianyu one day. Someone who could so easily defeat him.

The common Snow Wolf only has one tail, but little did humans know, they could grow more. Similar to the demonic foxes, they grew more tails as their power became stronger.It was easy for them too. However, in exchange for the ease, the limit of the Snow Wolves is only five tails. The fact that Shen Tianyu could harm a Snow Wolf at all should be surprising but she had defeated a three-tailed one at that. One must know that demonic beasts were much more powerful physically than their human counterparts and a demonic beast could easily beat a human at the same level. A three-tailed Snow Wolf was on the level of a Meridians Level Middle Stage martial artist! She was only peak Foundation Establishment Level!

"You couldn't have just happened to decide to reside here." Meaning: There must be something else here that you wanted to keep. A three-tailed Snow Wolf was pretty powerful, she knew. If he wanted to not be disturbed, he should terrorize the human kingdom. Otherwise, the humans would think it was a pushover. So, the reason it remained so low-key must have been because there was some treasure in the Forest that he wanted to keep hidden away from others.

The Snow Wolf tried to convince her otherwise, but she wouldn't budge. In the end, the Snow Wolf gave up. When it had recovered sufficiently to walk, Shen Tianyu had it guide her and Rong Jian to this "treasure". It was unwilling, but it begrudgingly agreed after careful deliberation. Rong Jian had stood back from the fight not because he was scared but because he didn't need to worry about the Snow Wolf with his strength. And the Foundation Establishment girl had been able to injure him to such an extent so easily. It could not afford to offend them, especially in his current weak state.

The group of a man, a woman and a beast walked through the forest uninhibited, followed by another black-clothed man. They finally arrived at a gaping cave jutting out from the forest floor. The group of two humans and one beast entered. It was as big as the outside suggested it to be with it's towering ceiling filled with stalactites dripping water, barely visible to them. Shen Tianyu took out a Night Pearl to replace a flashlight, which glowed brightly enough to cover them and three steps of space around them. The man in black followed behind them in the darkness of the cave. They all walked down the slanted slope until they were seemingly underground, lower than the opening of the cave they had stepped through. They finally arrived in front of a vast underground chamber.

The sight that greeted the two was absolutely stunning. The whole cave was covered in a soft blue hue. The ground itself was frozen over with ice and there seemed to be a blue glow emanating from it. Just standing outside the chamber was cold enough to make the two shiver. They protected their bodies with spiritual power before going in.

At the sides of the chamber, between the ice and rock walls, they could see white flowers with five teardrop shaped petals on stems with only a single leaf. They all emitted a soft blue glow, creating the soft blue hue in the cave. The Snow Wolf strode in as if he owned the place, and technically he did.

'So this is why...' Shen Tianyu finally had some questions answered at the sight.