Chapter 10: Fire Fox

The poor Fire Fox was injured, and one of its legs was bleeding profusely. It was limping at a snail's pace, leaving a slick trail of blood in its wake. Its breathing was shallow and labored with pain, and the sight of the poor thing stirred my heart.

I knew I was a hypocrite. Yeah, I would normally leave spirit beasts alone, and if the Fire Fox wasn't a Fire Fox but a bug or something that wasn't as cute or "normal" looking, I would have disregarded it. But that was human nature, I suppose.

Before I knew it, I was approaching the Fire Fox. It glanced up weakly, but was defiant enough to conjure several fireballs, each of them aimed at me. As I said, I wasn't some saint who would just take attacks lying down, so I backed off. Gathering my qi, I prepared to shoot down the fireballs with my Azure Rain Celestial Arrows. Already my azure qi was coalescing behind me and turning into small projectiles.

However, I didn't have to fire them.

The Fire Fox coughed and the fireballs instantly dissipated as it keeled over. I watched it cautiously, and once I was sure it wasn't a trap, I dismissed my arrows and approached it. The Fire Fox glared defiantly at me and hissed, but I shook my head.

"I won't hurt you," I promised in a soothing voice.

The Fire Fox regarded me suspiciously, but it relaxed slightly. Not that it had a choice. It was losing too much blood and strength, and I watched it collapse after a second. The dumb thing had overexerted itself with the fireballs earlier. Poor Fire Fox.

From a vast distance, I could hear mocking voices from beyond the fourth dimension yelling at me not to save the Fire Fox just because it reacted hostilely toward me. They wanted me to leave it and let it die.

I ignored them all and knelt beside the Fire Fox. Reaching inside my backpack, I took out the emergency first aid kit and began wrapping its limb in bandages to stem the bleeding. Aware that it wouldn't be enough, I also took out a hemostatic pill and fed it to the Fire Fox. For a second, it resisted, but then it obediently swallowed the spirit pill. Leaning back, I watched in satisfaction as the qi from the medicine diffused throughout its body.

Looked like it was going to be fine.

Standing up, I took one last glance at the Fire Fox before picking up my backpack and leaving. The Fire Fox murmured something softly, probably an expression of gratitude. I smiled at it and turned away. Best to leave before trouble came.

I was too late.

Before I could take more than a few steps, I heard growls and howls all around us. Coming to a halt, I narrowed my eyes and studied my surroundings. A pack of Ember Wolves had gathered, probably drawn by the scent of blood. I wasn't surprised at all – their keen of smell would have allowed them to track down this amount of blood from afar, despite the sulfur masking most of it.

The Fire Fox stiffened and tried to stand, but it was still too weak. Its almost nonexistent qi flickered out, the spirit beast unable to maintain any fireballs. It knew that the Ember Wolves were here for it, and judging from its furious expression, I wouldn't be surprised if the Ember Wolves had been the ones that had wounded it grievously. Having tended to the injury earlier, I had made out bite marks. I wasn't a doctor or a veterinarian, but I had been through enough battles to be able to tell what sort of damage could be inflicted by spirit beasts.

After all, I had suffered similar injuries in the past before.

I smiled wryly and reached for my bow inside my backpack. Even though the Ember Wolves were initially here for the Fire Fox, I knew that they wouldn't let me leave either. I hadn't intruded into their territory, yes, but I was in their hunting grounds. They saw me as food along with the Fire Fox they were hunting, and there was no way they would let such a tasty piece of morsel go.

Yeah, many spirit beasts saw humans as meals and preyed on them, particularly the carnivorous types. That was why they constantly invaded cities, and why human cultivators had to stand up to fight them off. Not all spirit beasts fed on humans, of course – the Salamanders and Fire Foxes, for example, would mind their own businesses and rarely attacked unless we provoked them. But the canine Ember Wolves often gathered in packs to single out solitary humans and pick them off. To them, we were nothing more than food.

I didn't blame them. I wasn't hypocritical enough to pretend that we humans didn't do the same to cattle, poultry and other agricultural animals. But I wasn't a saint, so I didn't intend to let them eat me either. Pulling my bow out, I prepared to defend myself. To be honest, I was looking forward to an encounter like this.

It was a chance for me to exercise and see how much cultivation I had regained.

The Ember Wolves, unaware of my enthusiasm, pounced. As one, they flew over the ridge, converging upon my position from multiple directions. For now, they ignored the Fire Fox and focused solely on me, recognizing me as the main threat. The Fire Fox was wounded and on the verge of death, unable to even conjure its signature fireballs. They could leave it for later.

Me, on the other hand…

First, I focused on the Ember Wolves in front of me. There were about eight of them within my frontal perspective, and I gripped my bow with my left hand. An azure arrow coalesced and manifested in my right hand and I fitted it to my bow before pulling the string as far back as I could.

Ah…this familiar sensation of manipulating qi and cutting loose. I missed it.

Normally, I could create arrows and flicked them off from my fingers or from thin air, but a spiritual weapon such as the bow I was now using enhanced my attacks by several times. In my weakened state, I would prefer getting whatever advantage I could.

Taking a deep breath, I held it in my chest and fired the arrow. The azure projectile streaked across the air before splitting into eight different comets that slammed into the lunging Ember Wolves with unerring precision.

Given that the element of my cultivation technique was water, and my qi essence similarly had an affinity with that particular element, my Azure Rain Celestial Arrows were super effective against the fire-type Ember Wolves, dealing twice the amount of damage as they usually would against other types of spirit beasts.

Simply put, the Ember Wolves were killed outright, each by a single arrow.

Without wasting time to triumphantly watch the demise of my falling foes, I spun around, already crafting a new qi arrow. Aiming at the Ember Wolves coming at me from behind, I then fired immediately. Once again, the projectile split off to several shells, much like a shotgun, and swerved at multiple angles to slay the Ember Wolves at the rear.

Unfortunately, those weren't the entirety of the pack.

"Damn it!"

I was forced to relocate, jumping away just as the Ember Wolves from the flanks descended upon my position. Claws raked into the dirt, leaving scorched imprints in the blackened rock. Embers ignited and sprayed me, leaving red burns on my flesh. I hopped back, and was forced to raise my bow to fend off a slash from the closest Ember Wolf.

Grunting in pain, I staggered before falling over. A second Ember Wolf pounced on me, its jaws trying to close on my neck, but I smacked it away with my bow. Damn, the blow was too shallow. Already the creature had recovered and snapping its fangs at me once more.

I rammed an elbow against its throat to keep its slavering jaws at bay, and then I kicked it off. However, more of the Ember Wolves leaped forward, determined to tear me apart.

Without much of a choice, I fired azure arrows from the heavens, accumulating the qi in the air and firing them off like comets. Like azure rain, the many arrows bombarded my position, hammering into the Ember Wolves and driving them off.

"Ugh…"

I sat up, feeling a little disappointed. With my cultivation reset back to the starting point, my non-bow arrows no longer had the power to obliterate these ordinary ranked Ember Wolves in a single shot. Despite having the elemental advantage, the Azure Rain Celestial Arrows could only leave stinging marks on their bodies.

Seemed like I still had a long way to go before I could return to my previous Yellow ranked cultivation base. That was fine. One step at a time.

And right now, I should focus on surviving.

Kicking off the ground, I hurled myself to the side just in time to evade a lunge from a couple of Ember Wolves. Their jaws closed around empty air and they turned their snarling snouts toward me, dismayed that their prey had escaped their clutches. Skidding across the ground, I righted my bow and let loose another volley of arrows that destroyed their heads.

Jumping to my feet, I shifted my stance and fired another couple of arrows in quick succession. Even though I didn't have the time to aim, I was gratified to hear whines and howls as my attacks found their marks.

"Phew…"

I exhaled in relief and took stock of my surroundings once more. There were very few Ember Wolves left in the vicinity and they were wisely retreating. Spirit beasts might sometimes lack sentience, but they weren't fools. They knew when they were outmatched, and they weren't reckless enough to throw themselves at an enemy when they realized such a tactic was suicide.

Moreover, I had decimated their pack and they were aware that they no longer held a numerical advantage. With their tails between their legs, they turned around and loped off.

I didn't pursue them. Feeling exhausted, I dropped back to my rump and seized the opportunity to take a quick rest. With my cultivation only having been recently recovered, I was unable to do much more. My qi reserves had been drained, and I knew deep inside that if the battle had dragged on for much longer, I would be defeated ignominiously. I barely had any energy left.

"Huff…"

Heaving, I staggered to my feet and checked on the Fire Fox. To my surprise, it hadn't fled during the fight. Even though the Ember Wolves' attention had entirely been focused on me, which was why it hadn't been attacked earlier, I had thought it would seize the opportunity to escape to safety. Yeah, its leg was injured, but I had patched it up, and with the spirit pill I had fed it, it should have recovered just enough to run.

But it hadn't. Instead, it approached me before nuzzling its head against my foot. I stared at it, astonished, then smiled wearily.

"Well, I'm glad you're all right too."

That was when the system chose to come up with a new notification window. Taken aback, I blinked and reread the text.

-Would you like to make a spirit contract with this Fire Fox? –

"Wait, I can do that?"

-Yes. By making use of this system, you can contract this Fire Fox to be one of your summoned spirit beasts. Would you like to do so? –

"Sure. If this little guy agrees." I glanced at the Fire Fox, who nodded despite not knowing what's going on."

-Contract successful. –

A new window materialized, displaying the information of the Fire Fox.

-Fire Fox. Rank: Ordinary. Elemental Affinity: Fire. Nature: Valiant and courageous. Gender: female. Would you like to give it a name? –

Oh, so the Fire Fox was a female. I studied her for a while before coming to a decision.

"All right then…I'll name you Xiao Huo!"