77 A Cheeky Weasel

Ye Xiu wasn't very happy. No, he wasn't happy. Maybe it had to do with the fact that he was being bitten by a Qi Beast that seemed to be playing around with him. It also didn't help that the Qi Beast that was harassing him seemed to be laughing. Ye Xiu had been trapped in this particular debacle for the past hour.

He hadn't even seen a single hair out of place when he first arrived at the open area that the two remaining Qi Beasts resided in when he was ambushed by a white flying weasel. He had identified that the weasel-like Qi Beast was an actual weasel. The satyr wasn't at the open area and Ye Xiu had guessed that it was the one hunting for the food and left the weasel here alone so that it could take care of any intruders.

The weasel had started to attack him with fervour, and due to him being caught off-guard by the creature, he could only dodge whilst trying to get his whip out of his dimensional storage. Why he took out a whip instead of his katana, that was a question that would be easily answered.

The reasoning was simple, using a katana to hit such a small Qi Beast wasn't beneath Ye Xiu's skills but hitting such a small Qi Beast that moved faster than he could see... it was currently out of his realm of skill and using a whip to attack was always easier anyway.

Ye Xiu had been forced out of the open area and into the forested areas where he was at a disadvantage. He managed to hold his ground in a fairly spacious area where he had enough space for him to swing his whip around comfortably. The forest was definitely an advantageous area for the weasel but Ye Xiu could do nothing to change that or get away from the area since the weasel would immediately block his efforts.

The area that they were stuck inside wasn't completely disadvantageous to Ye Xiu since it also meant that the weasel didn't have too much space to dodge his whip attacks. Ye Xiu was hesitant to take out his second whip since he was already having a hard time to keep an eye on the weasel. He knew that using his dual whip style for this situation would be advantageous but he hadn't even seen the weasel using any Qi attacks on him yet.

Ye Xiu's only consolation in the fight was that he could sense the weasel's body since he had his Qi imprint on the weasel's body. How he managed to do that was simple. He had tagged the weasel just as it slammed into his body and the weasel hadn't even noticed that he had done anything to him.

Due to being able to sense the weasel, he could at least attack with his whip which counted as his only offensive attack in the entire fight. He knew that his Qi thorns weren't even penetrating past the weasel's fur so he was simply trying to bat the weasel away so he could move away from the area.

The battle was relatively silent besides the sounds of the weasel laughing and the sounds that the whip made when it hit a solid object or when it generated enough wind to cause it to be heard. Though it looked like the battle was in a stalemate, Ye Xiu was definitely the one that looked far worse off.

After a few moments of silence, Ye Xiu was sighing because he had a moment of relief. The two combatants stared at each other as if they were speaking silently with just their stares. The silence was broken by a deep voice that Ye Xiu had never heard before. "I'm surprised a kid like you is able to keep up with me albeit you are doing poorly." The source of the voice sounded amused and Ye Xiu quickly found where the voice was coming from.

Ye Xiu was surprised that the weasel had developed the skill to speak in a human tongue but the surprised faded when he remembered what the weasel's species was and that it was of a relatively high rank already. The deep voice spoke again. "If you managed to get this far in the test then I guess that you would be able to defeat me. You've already defeated the monkey and snake in a short amount of time and that's no small feat."

"I was surprised that the only traces of the battles that you had with the monkey and snakes were the traps that you had so kindly led them into. This showed that you were smart and it was also the reason why I stayed behind in the area today. The satyr is much stronger than me even though it is of a lower rank than me." The weasel was informing Ye Xiu of the strength that the satyr actually held.

"Why are you even telling me this? I don't see any reason why you would help me out since we're enemies after all." He was suspicious of what the weasel was planning to do because he really doubted that the weasel would've survived to become a Grade 4 Qi Beast by not being devious.

The weasel didn't reply for several moments before it cleared its throat. Ye Xiu realised that he couldn't simply just call Qi Beasts as 'beasts' since it doesn't do justice to their intelligence. "I would like to offer you something that would technically bend the rules of the test that you are taking. How I know about the rules is a secret." Ye Xiu swore that he saw the weasel wink at him conspiratorily.

Ye Xiu was hesitating because he had no idea whether to accept his offer or not. It was a risky endeavour but in the end, he decided to hear the weasel out. "I'll listen to your offer before I decide anything." He leaned on a tree that was nearby so that he could at least rest himself if whatever offer the weasel had was not to his liking and they had to go back to fighting.

The weasel seemed to perk up when he heard that Ye Xiu would hear him out. "The offer is simple, I am to be bonded with you as a familiar and the rules that state for you to kill a Grade 4 Qi Beast will be null and a new one will be put in place." When Ye Xiu heard of the offer he narrowed his eyes.

"I can only have a maximum of seven familiars in my entire life with the cultivation technique that I am using. What makes you think you are worthy enough to be my familiar? Why would such a rule exist in the test anyway, I sincerely doubt that the person who designed the test would leave such a loophole." Ye Xiu crossed his arms as he stared at the weasel who looked very smug as Ye Xiu questioned him.

The weasel seemed to puff up in pride as he spoke. "I happen to be the youngest Qi Beast that was in the entire valley. I know this since whoever holds the highest cultivation in the valley gets information privy only to those that hold the position."

"I have had predecessors before me that have held the same position but they are transported to another place after they are stronger than a set level."

Ye Xiu raised his eyebrow at the information because the weasel had contradicted himself when he told him the information that he had politely asked him not to ask about. "The majority of the Qi Beasts that you've seen here have little to no potential besides those in the second area and the final area. The information I gain gives the strongest Qi Beast a chance to bond with whatever participant enters the test if they don't wish to die."

Ye Xiu was weighing the pros and cons of what the weasel was offering him. 'I don't even know if he's telling the truth but it would be good to have a familiar.' He decided to postpone whatever decision he was going to make. "Give me some time to think about your deal. Let me deal with the satyr first before I decide what I do."

The weasel seemed to be nodding his head. "Just scream my name whenever you want to speak to me. My name is Bai Tian." The weasel left without a trace after giving its name.

'He said that the Qi Beasts disappear when they reach a certain strength. Does that mean that they no longer reside in the valley and is somewhere else in the Dimension? Master truly outdid himself when he made the Dimension. He even made sure to have a contingency plan in case the Qi Beasts here became too strong for the test.'

Ye Xiu had a lot to think about after the information had been revealed to him by the weasel. He was actually doubting the weasel's words but he had no actual reason to because, for all he knew, the weasel was telling the truth. His offer wasn't detrimental to Ye Xiu in any way so it should've been an easy decision but with the limit of how many familiars he could have, he was hesitating slightly.

He liked the idea that he would get a familiar and was turning the thought over and over again. He decided to talk to the weasel for a few more days after he killed the satyr because he wanted to get to know the weasel first. He wanted to see if he liked the weasel's personality and if he did, he would definitely accept the offer because having a familiar would certainly boost his combat strength.

There were cons to having a familiar but Ye Xiu dismissed the cons as something negligible because he believed he could find a solution to the cons so that they wouldn't affect him at all.

The best way to learn about someone is to fight them so he was going to finish killing the satyr and have the weasel fight him so that he can figure out what the weasel's personality was like. He was certain that the weasel was a cheeky one due to the laughter that he had heard.

The time he had now was best used in coming up with a plan to kill the satyr. The abilities of the satyr were troublesome and he knew that the only way for him to prevent the satyr from getting an upper hand was to avoid all of its attacks so its teleportation ability would not be able to be used. He had the miasma covered since he could use his fire Qi attacks to remove it from the battle. He had no idea if it would be enough but he could only hope.

He went into his meditative trance with his high hopes. Ye Xiu was actually happy to kill the satyr and he would do it with a smile on his face. He hated what the satyr embodied and what conditions had to be met for it to be born. He hated what the satyr did to sate its desires. He hated. No, he despised. He despised the species as a whole, especially after the kidnapping incident. His father had told him about the entire incident and he knew everything.

Ye Xiu calmed himself of his emotions and tried to cleanse himself of the thoughts. He never thought of things such as hate with such vehemence and he didn't want to indulge himself. He would get rid of that hate after he killed the satyr and let things lie as they are.

He knew that pursuing such a train of thought was dangerous and he would do anything to remove those thoughts if he ever started to think about them.

He started the Phoenix's cultivation technique and he quickly lost all thoughts besides focusing on his entire body.