"Grandpa, Xue'er went off training on her own?" As soon as he returned home, Leng Ruohan hurried to his grandfather's study upon hearing that Xue'er had left home to train.
"Yes!" Leng Qingtian answered.
"Grandpa, Xue'er has never left home since she was a child. How could you let her go alone?" Leng Ruohan said worriedly.
"Ruohan, Xue'er has already grown up. Since she wants to go, shouldn't I support her as her grandfather?" Leng Qingtian said helplessly. No wonder Xue'er didn't want Ruohan to know. If he knew, he would have definitely followed.
"But…"
"Ruohan, Xue'er can take care of herself," Leng Qingtian said firmly. To be honest, if he didn't know that she had that magical bracelet where she could seek refuge when in danger, he would also be quite worried.
"…" Xue'er, how can you be so cruel? I love you so much, but you didn't even tell me before you left? Leng Ruohan complained in his head.
"Anyways, it's good that you're back, Ruohan. I will be going into seclusion a few days later. Oh, right, Xue'er left this for you." Leng Qingtian took out the emerald green fruit and gave it to Ruohan.
"What rich spiritual energy! Where did Xue'er get this? Why didn't she eat it herself?" Leng Ruohan was both surprised and touched as he received the fruit.
"Xue'er's master gave it to her, and she still has more. She specially left one for you," Leng Qingtian explained.
"Xue'er's master? When did she have a master?" Leng Ruohan was puzzled.
"She acknowledged a master just before leaving. Her master is very powerful, or else I wouldn't have dared to let her go out alone. So you don't have to worry about her." Leng Qingtian knew that his grandson loved Xue'er even more than him, so he said this to reassure his grandson since he didn't want him to worry and have it affect his cultivation.
"Ruohan, tell the academy that you're going to join me in seclusion. Before Xue'er left, she said that she hopes to see you becoming a Spiritual Sovereign when she returns," Leng Qingtian suggested. His grandson was already at peak Spiritual Monarch. With the fruit, it would be a piece of cake for him to break through to Spiritual Sovereign.
"Alright." Since this is what Xue'er wants, how can I let her down!
…
Leng Ruoxue had been flying for nearly half a month on the falcon, and she was finally nearing the Illusionary Forest.
In the past half month, she had been flying during the day and resting at inns during the night. Although she always booked rooms, she rested and cultivated in the Heaven and Earth Bracelet.
Three days ago, she found an uninhabited valley to advance. After the baptism of heaven and earth laws, she was able to reach intermediate Spiritual Sovereign and unlock the first seal of the Heaven and Earth Bracelet. The Heaven and Earth Bracelet gained the ability to change into any shape at will, and the small flame lion advanced to level nine spirit beast. Even the falcon she fed with pills every day had promoted to intermediate spirit beast. But Baby still had no changes and was as weak as before.
Finally here! Leng Ruoxue was excited when she saw the giant trees that shielded the forest floor from the sun and the green that stretched infinitely into the horizon.
As soon as she entered Willow City, she saw the immense forest.
Although Willow City was only a medium-sized city in the Eastern Lagoon Empire, because of the Illusionary Forest, it was as bustling and prosperous as any major city of the empire.
But the prosperous city was not that attractive to her at this moment. She most wanted to enter the long-awaited Illusionary Forest currently. Now that she was here, how could she be willing to wait? After all, she was not here to sightsee.
Leng Ruoxue came to the entrance of the forest. The sun had set, so no one was around the area. To be precise, no one would choose to enter the forest at night because the Illusionary Forest would become even more perilous. But for Leng Ruoxue, it made no difference. She had the Heaven and Earth Bracelet, so she could get out of any dangerous situations.
It wasn't free to enter the Illusionary Forest; there was an entrance fee of five hundred gold coins per person. Leng Ruoxue paid the money and was about to enter when the guard suddenly stopped her. "Miss, please wait."
Leng Ruoxue frowned. What does he want? Why isn't he letting me in after I've paid?
"Miss, the Illusionary Forest is extremely dangerous at night. You should come back during the day," the young guard kindly reminded her. He didn't want such a beautiful young lady to be eaten by the spirit beasts in the forest.
"It's okay. I'm not afraid." Leng Ruoxue thanked the guard and headed in.
Although she knew that the Illusionary Forest was enormous, only when she was here, walking among the trees, could she truly feel the boundlessness.
…
She spent almost a month in the forest, but it wasn't very fruitful. She had only seen a few high-level spirit beasts. Moreover, it seemed as though she was still in the periphery of the forest. During this time, she encountered a small mercenary team of five, from whom she inquired some information. At first, she was still surprised because she had read that there were many mercenary groups in the forest. But after almost a month, she had only met this team. They told her that it wasn't strange for her not to come across anyone in the forest because it was simply too big. Many weaker mercenary groups did not dare to proceed too deep into the forest and wouldn't spend the night here. Afterward, Leng Ruoxue declined their invitation to join their group and parted ways with them.
Leng Ruoxue continued farther into the forest. She collected all the herbs she came across along the way, and she also hunted many delicious spirit beasts for food. She had already filled up several storage rings. Alas, she had too many gluttonous little spirit beasts to feed! And, well… she also liked to eat. Although some beasts were really cute, she clearly distinguished between food and pets.
Hmmm? There seems to be fighting? Her journey so far had been rather boring. She had only encountered that small mercenary team, and all the spirit beasts she encountered were weak and didn't take much effort to deal with. Now, with the sudden sounds of intense fighting, her curiosity was piqued. Thus, she walked toward the source of the commotion.
Those are…
… purple-eyed snow fox and earth lizard! Leng Ruoxue was slightly surprised.
Purple-eyed snow foxes, the king of foxes, were born elegant and noble. They were formidable spirit beasts that were best at charming and used ice-element attacks.
Earth lizards slightly resembled a lizard. They were said to have the blood of dragons and were a side branch of the dragon race. Earth lizards were of earth-attribute spirit beasts and were best at defense.
Although she didn't know why the purple-eyed snow fox and earth lizard were fighting, she could sense that they were higher level than her, so she kept her distance to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
Spirit beasts could be divided into elementary, intermediate, advanced, holy, and divine beasts.
Levels one to three were elementary, four to six were intermediate, and seven to nine were advanced. Holy beasts and divine beasts each had nine levels as well. Only when spirit beasts reached level seven could they speak, and only divine beasts could transform into human form.
Since Leng Ruoxue entered the bracelet to cultivate every night, she had already reached advanced Spiritual Sovereign with time acceleration. However, she still felt that these two spirit beasts were stronger than her. This meant that they were at least level seven holy beasts. Levels one to five holy beasts were equivalent to human Spiritual Sovereigns, and level seven and above holy beasts were equivalent to human Spiritual Supremacies.
It was a rare opportunity to see a battle between two Spiritual Supremacy-level spirit beasts, so how should she let this chance slip away? With this thought, Leng Ruoxue hurriedly hid behind bushes to spectate the fight. Although the opportunity was rare, her safety was still more important.
"Big Sister, those two are level nine holy beasts," Qing Jue said from the Heaven and Earth Bracelet.
"Level nine? Who do you think will win?" Leng Ruoxue communicated telepathically with Qing Jue. Although most of his abilities were sealed, he had traversed through many cosmic spaces with his master, so he was considerably experienced and knowledgeable.
"These two beasts aren't weak, and each has its own strengths… It's hard to tell, but judging by the current situation, the fox is likely to win," Qing Jue analyzed.
"Damn fox, if I can't have it, you can't either." Seeing that it was at a disadvantage, the earth lizard's milky little eyes flashed with viciousness.
"Stinky reptile, you can't even defeat me," the purple-eyed snow fox said elegantly. Although it looked disheveled now, its nobleness remained unaffected.
"Big Sister, that earth lizard is going to blow itself up. Come in quickly." Qing Jue sensed the spiritual energy in the forest rushing toward the earth lizard and hurriedly reminded Leng Ruoxue to take refuge in the bracelet. A level nine Holy Beast self-exploding couldn't be taken lightly.
Just as Leng Ruoxue was about to enter the bracelet, she saw the purple-eyed snow fox unleashing a spiritual skill, so she waited to see what it would do to prevent the earth lizard from exploding.
"Damn it! You lunatic!" The purple-eyed snow fox could tell what the earth lizard was up to, so it unleashed its most powerful ice-element spiritual skill and froze the huge earth lizard into a block of ice. Then it collapsed onto the ground due to exhausting its spiritual power.
"Human, come out," the purple-eyed snow fox uttered weakly. In fact, it had long known that there was a human nearby, but the human was too weak for it to take seriously. But now that both it and the stinky reptile were heavily injured, the puny human would be able to take advantage of them.
Since the snow fox was aware of her presence, Leng Ruoxue stopped hiding and walked out from behind the bushes without hesitation.
Upon seeing the little human, the purple-eyed snow fox was stunned. It's actually a woman, and she looks decent too. The best-looking human I've seen.
"I would rather die than acknowledge a weak human as my master." Despite being in a tattered state, the purple-eyed snow fox was still arrogant. The proud spirit beast would never acknowledge a weak human as its master, even if she looked decent.
Weak? Is it referring to me? Leng Ruoxue was a bit depressed. Although her cultivation wasn't high, she wasn't weak either! She wasn't even hiding her strength currently. But if she knew that the beast only saw her as looking decent, she would be even more depressed.
Leng Ruoxue examined the snow fox before her. Blood and dirt covered its white fur, and it had injuries all over its body. Although it was riddled with wounds, it still maintained its natural elegance. She had heard that purple-eyed snow foxes were spirit beasts with a noble bloodline. The nobler the bloodline, the scarcer the spirit beast. So this snow fox could definitely be regarded as a legendary spirit beast, rare and precious.
Everyone liked beautiful things, and she was no exception. But even though she liked this snow fox a lot, she didn't want to force the fox when it was in a difficult situation.
Leng Ruoxue approached the snow fox, who was lying motionless on the ground from overdrawing its spiritual power and severe injuries, and stuffed a pill into its mouth.
"I don't intend to tame you forcibly." She was also very proud. Then she turned and left.
Dumbfounded, the snow fox watched as the weak human departed. What's going on? Isn't this human supposed to capture me while I'm weak and find a beast trainer to tame me? Why is she leaving… This isn't right! The smart snow fox was confused.
What?! My injuries have healed, and even my spiritual power has restored? Let me try. I'm really okay. That pill…
Seeing the human walk farther and farther away, the snow fox hurriedly got up and chased after her.
Leng Ruoxue looked at the large two-meter tall snow fox blocking her way in bewilderment.
"Why didn't you capture me and find a beast trainer to tame me?" the snow fox asked doubtfully. Its beautiful, amethyst-like watery eyes reflected a glimpse of shyness.
"Do you think that all humans will capitalize on your injuries to capture you, then find a beast trainer to tame and contract you?" Leng Ruoxue threw a question back instead.
"Yes." The snow fox nodded its head earnestly. Aren't humans like that?
"Not every human likes to take advantage of others' difficulties," Leng Ruoxue said. In her previous life, she had always seen animals as man's best friend, or at least more trustworthy than some humans. Moreover, her grandfather once told her that humans and spirit beasts should be best friends, and both her grandfather and big brother treated their spirit beasts as family members. The Leng family would never treat their spirit beasts as mere tools.