17 In the Shadows (1)

As the sun sets, droplets dripped down Ye Chen's neck and his clothing was drenched in sweat. The silver lynx raised its head and slowly opened its eyes, letting out a small yawn.

"Ah, it has been 8 hours since Shizun left..." Ye Chen said while using his fingers to stroke the smaller than usual beast on his shoulder. It jumped off the youth's shoulder, purred and ran towards the back of the peak. The orange fox was also nowhere to be seen.

Ye Chen knows that the beasts have gone hunting for their own dinner in the forest behind Sea Peak and didn't pay any mind as he strolled towards his room, planning to make his way to the food hall once he change into a fresh set of clothes.

As he was removing his robes alone in his room, a small ball of fur hopped out from his clothes and landed on his bed, staring at Ye Chen with its purple eyes.

"Brrrr..." It purred happily, swaying its tail.

"Yin Li! You're not allowed to come into the main building!" Ye Chen whispered angrily. "Ahhh… did you trick me into thinking you left to hunt, hid in my robes while becoming super tiny so I wouldn't notice you?"

"Brrrr… brrr." Yin Li gave a guilty look but continued to sway its tail, not being able to hide its excitement.

It is the first time the Silver Lynx has infiltrated Sea Peak's main building. Non-contracted spiritual beasts are prohibited from entering the main building for fear that guests or attendants of Sea Peak would see them.

Ever since Yin Li was rescued by the master-disciple duo one year ago, it stayed behind the Peak in its forest and training grounds. The silver lynx was rescued in a remarkable story - which would be told another time. But it was orphaned before it was even born, and rescued by the master-disciple pair while they were out on an expedition to collect herbs while conducting some spiritual beast research.

Every day the silver lynx would wait by the stone table on the training grounds, waiting for the youth to do his daily training while it accompanied him by napping on the side.

However a month ago, the youth stopped coming, and despite waiting on the stone table from morning until dusk, he never appeared. The silver lynx didn't give up and waited every day at the same spot, only it was getting impatient and felt helpless. All it could do was wait.

As a silver lynx, Yin Li has a high aptitude for cultivating and his species is considered an extremely rare one, only a handful left in this world. His method of cultivating is slightly different from the average beast. What outsiders see as simple "napping" is a form of meditation for the silver lynx. It expands the spiritual capacity of the core and that is why Yin Li is always seen napping. Of course, this is something not many know as the Silver Lynx is one of the rarest species in the world. Even Elder Ming is not aware of this form of meditation.

But even so, Elder Ming gives all spiritual beasts living in the peak training tasks and errands to increase their physical fighting strength. This is also why some of the beasts have higher cultivation strength compared to the wild ones outside.

The silver lynx only found out a week later from Pi Lu that its favourite human is heavily injured and will not be coming any time soon. (Pi Lu is Elder Ming's spiritual beast, thus able to move around freely) Despite that, Yin Li still waited every day for fear that in case the youth dropped by, he was not able to see him.

Since the youth is now back after a month of absence, the silver lynx obviously couldn't bear another moment away from him.

"Come on, I'll bring you back before anyone finds out." Ye Chen urged the little beast.

"Brrrr...…. Brrrr." Yin Li reluctantly purred. He finally mastered the skill of size manipulation to sneak into the main building. Going back now is quite a pity.

"Behave yourself, this is for your own good. If someone were to know a silver lynx is here, you may be hunted down!!!" Ye Chen's head throbbed thinking about how that species is considered extinct. If anyone were to know of one that exists in the sea peak, he couldn't imagine what that person would do to get it.

It was then a few angry knocks came banging at the door.

[ Knock Knock Knock ]

Ye Chen panicked and quickly hid the Silver Lynx in his robes once again and headed towards the door. Before Ye Chen could open the door, it was kicked open by a plain face cultivator, Elder Ming.

"..."

"What's taking you so long to open the door? I thought something had happened to you." Elder Ming sounded paranoid, frustrated and worried.

"I was changing. Apologies Shizun. Is something wrong?" Ye Chen fidgets uncomfortably, worrying that his master would notice the furball hiding in his robes. He was surprised to see his master being so temperamental now.

Elder Ming, "We have investigated the bloodstains you saw outside the cave… they do not belong to humans. It is the blood of a pregnant winged lion..."

Upon hearing that, Ye Chen's face paled and he tightened his grip around the teapot he was holding while preparing tea. He now understood why his master was behaving so abnormally.

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