[Bonus chapter]Survival

Under the darkness, Yu Tian willed himself to be calm. He hugged the little fox close to his body, a hand on her snout to keep her silent.

Sounds similar to rapid clicking filled the room. Yu Tian grit his teeth as he realized the creature was looking for them using echolocation.

Like bats, the creature without eyes is trying to use reflected sound to determine their location. They were in terrible danger.

Feeling around the ground, Yu Tian picked up a handful of gravel and threw it as hard as he could against the wall on the opposite side. The loud cracking sounds immediately disturbed the creature, who launched more tendrils to its location, impaling and breaking the runed wall.

Still holding onto Yae, Yu Tian stealthily moved and hid behind another pillar in the room. He deduced that the creature seemed to only be able to maneuver towards sound from its behaviour.

Before everything sank into darkness, Yu Tian also noted that the glistening and malleable carapace it had seemed nearly impervious to any sort of physical damage.

"Zi Jin, stay back here and stay quiet." Yu Tian quietly whispered into her ear as the monster continued to attack the area he threw the rocks towards, using the loud impacts to mask his voice.

The little fox could only curl up into a ball pitifully out of fear. Yu Tian gave her one last comforting pat before sprinting out of his location.

[Shockwave]

Firing a wave of lightning against the creature, Yu Tian could sense that it was turning and multiple attacks were flying towards him. Unfortunately, fighting in the dark was something Yu Tian didn't have too much experience in, although his natural element provided a bit of lighting.

[Eyes of Eternity]

The former god dove to his left, rolling on the hard stone as a myriad of tendrils brushed past him, impaling the spot he was in.

Thankfully, he memorized most of the layout in this room to maneuver around, but even Yu Tian's eye couldn't help him discern much within the darkness.

As he had initially thought, there was no way to kill or defeat this creature. Yu Tian wasn't willing to try close combat either if his lightning was already ineffective against this thing.

Therefore, their only choice was to escape. He just needed a bit of time to recalibrate his location and remember the way they came in.

Picking up another handful of stones, Yu Tian threw them to the opposite side again with a soft grunt of exertion. However, the creature didn't lash out to the location of the sound this time, remaining still.

"What?..." Yu Tian was slightly confused before his eyes widened from the incoming sense of danger.

Multiple tendrils lashed out at him, grazing his arms and body as it tore through his robe. Yu Tian gasped as he barely managed to avoid the sharp tentacles impaling his vitals and killing him on the spot.

This monster... Has intelligence?

With a hand on his injuries to staunch the bleeding, Yu Tian felt his situation becoming dire by the second. If this creature could somehow smell or detect blood, he would be killed soon.

Yae's nose twitched as the smell of blood filled the room. The little fox finally came to her senses and recognized Yu Tian's smell.

"Oh no..."

Sensing movement from the source, Yae breathed a sigh of relief. Yu Tian was still alive, but he was apparently injured.

Fighting against her fear, she forced herself to stand and activate a technique.

[Tennari]

Yae's amethyst eyes glowed with power within the darkness, charging up her internal Qi. With a cry, waves of purple lightning burst from her body and struck against the creature, lighting up the room.

"Zi Jin!" Yu Tian was first stunned at the little fox using a Qi technique, but then became hopeful at the sudden brightness.

He knew he didn't have much time to waste.

[Eyes of Eternity]

Using his ability, his enhanced vision darted around looking for the exit. The former god's heart sank when he saw the passageway already collapsed by an attack from the beast.

Yae became horrified as the attack didn't seem to faze the creature. She then saw the creature shoot out tendrils from is body, all launching towards her.

[Shinkirō]

Using her powers of illusion, Yae tried to conceal her presence and avoid detection. Her body appeared to be phasing into the background, but the spirit fox realized too late that it was useless against the blind attacks.

"Careful!"

She felt herself being picked up into the air by Yu Tian, who dashed over using lightning to empower his body. However, Yae's eyes widened when the boy was unaffected by the lightning from her body.

"Keep the lightning up, Zi Jin." Yu Tian commanded, moving as fast as he could.

Both of their natural elements might be lightning, but her holy lightning was special since only the demonic beasts with her bloodline could be unaffected by it. Not only was Yu Tian a human, but she was certain he was not from her family.

What was going on?

Oblivious to her thoughts, Yu Tian continued to avoid the continuous strikes. He continued to maneuver around the room while avoiding the beast, but even the former god knew it was impossible to dodge forever.

[Alpha Force]

Blinking to avoid more attacks, Yu Tian looked around desperately for another way to escape. Unfortunately, he couldn't discern any other way out of this room.

Were they going to die here?

Gripping another handful of stones in desperation, Yu Tian swung his arm and launched them in different directions, impacting areas of the room in different directions.

The creature stood still, as in calculating something. Its mouth turned towards Yu Tian in a grotesque smile, figuring out the sources' origin.

"Shit." Yu Tian moved to change his location again, spinning and dodging more attacks midair. However, the creature still managed to open up another cut on his leg.

Not only is it sensitivity to sound, but also the ability to calculate multiple trajectories. It was inevitable that the monster would eventually land a fatal blow on him.

Feeling dizzy, Yu Tian pushed himself to keep moving, holding tightly to the little fox.

Sensitivity...

"Wait..." Yu Tian's eyes sharpened as he pondered on the creature's weakness.

"Zi Jin, I need you to trust me on this." Yu Tian told the fox his plan through heavy breaths of pain and exhaustion.

Hearing his plan, Yae thought it was ridiculous but still trusted him none the less. Running towards the large mouth, Yu Tian threw Yae to the opposite side like a football and both of them let out a loud cry, causing the beast to falter slightly from their unusual actions.

"Now!"

[Tennari]

Yae charged up another wave of holy lightning with glowing eyes. The creature opened it's mouth as if to laugh silently at their foolishness, but was surprised when the attack wasn't directed towards it.

It's target was...

Seeing the lighting blasting towards him, Yu Tian condensed his lightning Qi into his hands. His eye also activated as he prepared to catch the little fox's attack.

[Eyes of Eternity]

"Hah!" With a loud shout, Yu Tian clapped his hands together as hard as he could, catching and combining the demonic beasts' lightning with his own in front of the monster. "Cover your ears, Zi Jin!"

[Thunderclap]

"Boom!"

Not only was the explosion of light massive, but the resounding loudness in the room seemed to have echoed for an eternity. Yu Tian felt himself slowly lose conciousness with a painful ringing in his ears, blood gushing out.

"Ah... This feels familiar." He tried to speak, but there was no sound.

Only a deafening silence and a mute ringing was all he could perceive, same as how he had escaped the Ninth Heaven.

Then, everything turned black.

...

"Huh?" Yu Tian woke up to something wet in his mouth. He instinctively gulped it in and felt a lot better.

The tastelessness was identical to water, but it helped him recover. His eyes slowly fluttered open slightly and he realized he was lying against a pillar in the room.

Something itchy was on both sides of his face. Scratching it, Yu Tian tried to focus through the nausea and saw an abundant amount of dried blood under his fingernails, leading from his ears.

He could still only perceive the deafening ring in his mind, unable to hear anything. However, Yu Tian noticed there was another person in front of him, acting strangely. They covered their chest with a fair hand as white as pure jade, slowly backing away.

"What?..." Yu Tian squinted as he tried to make out the beautiful figure more through his blurry vision.

Unfortunately, he could only make out that they were naked, dropping a makeshift bowl that they were using to help him drink water. Suddenly, he felt a light pressure on his neck and he sank back into unconciousness.

...

After she confirmed Yu Tian was properly knocked out, the beautiful figure took deep breathes, trying to calm her heart that was racing from embarassment and anger. She still had her hands around her private areas to cover them.

Standing up slowly with her shapely and slender legs, her amethyst eyes were complicated and filled with shameful anger as she watched the young boy sleep peacefully.

"He... He saw my body. Should I kill him now?" The young girl questioned herself quietly.

After all, Yu Tian was only a human, and she was a royal spirit fox.

Appearing to be around 16 years old, the girl had strikingly beautiful features. Her silky blonde hair cascaded down her back, and her skin was unblemished and smooth.

Despite her otherwise human appearance, her high cheekbones were accompanied by fox ears atop her head and a fluffy tail swishing behind her, marking her as something other than purely human.

Yae stared calmly at the corpse of the monstrocity, seemingly dead as unknown fleshy matter poured out of two orifices on each side of its head. All that remained of its once impervious and malleable body only resembled a pool of dark mush.

If she had to give it a rank for demonic beasts, this creature could easily fit under Rank 6 or 7. Yae felt that it was mostly luck that they managed to kill it.

Without a technique that can create a strong and loud sound, they had no other way to damage this monster.

Yae was then stunned to discover that after absorbing the creature's spiritual essence, her cultivation had skyrocketed from Rank 3 to Rank 4. As the demonic beast processed the surge of power coursing through her body, she felt her physical form undergoing a transformation.

Yae was now finally capable of condensing a human body.

She gazed back to Yu Tian's peaceful sleeping form. Seeing how badly he was injured from the battle, she created a makeshift bowl and began to feed him water from the well to help him recover.

Unfortunately, it was also this time that this idiot woke up. Yae's face burned again as she thought of him seeing her naked body, intentionally or not.

Still, this is already the second time he saved her life. Yu Tian even warned her to protect herself while he suffered the full force from that suicidal attack.

The young boy became this injured because of her.

The demonic beast's gaze softened. With a melodic sigh, Yae continued to use the well and scoop up the water and help Yu Tian drink. She felt relieved when his condition appeared to finally stabilize.

As the creature finally died, the once-dimmed lighting from the runes flickered back to life. However, Yae noticed that the seemingly endless water had now reduced to just a few buckets.

When the last drops were collected, Yae drank it herself with the same bowl, ignoring the fact that it was the same area she had been feeding Yu Tian from.

Exhausted, she took one last look at the boy before transforming back into her fox form to stabilise her foundation. There didn't appear to be any dangers remaining in this room, so she decided it was alright to rest.

Feeling safe, Yae leaned into Yu Tian's body with her head, also drifting off to sleep.