18 Chen Yan

Chen Yan, a kindly young lady with long black hair and eyes like melted chocolate, who forsook much of her youth for the sake of her little sister. She did not mind though, as her sister was her whole world, and she herself was rather dependent on her sister as her sole emotional support in their lacking circumstances.

In fact, Chen Yan was rather talented, and managed to get a scholarship for a high end college. Of the nine realms of cultivation, she had actually reached the third, soul refining, at the youthful age of twenty and was nearing the peak, almost ready to breakthrough to the hollow core realm, the beginning of the 3 realms of core establishment.

This put her in the upper tier of youths, most of which with average talent could only enter the second stage, qi refining, at twenty five.

Despite her achievements though, her greatest pride was her sister, Chen Ling who had just recently managed to enter the world of cultivation at the age of 8, entering foundation establishment at the body refining realm. This showed even more talented than Chen Yan, who entered the body refining realm at age 10.

Currently, she had just returned from her part-time job and was preparing dinner for her sister, It was a special meat and potato stew for her sister who had just started her cultivation journey last week. She was only celebrating now because she had to save up a bit of money to buy some beef.

She had thought her sister would be running out soon at the smell of meat, but she had yet to come out, making her worried.

The suddenly heavy roar reverberated throughout the humble, one story, two bedroom abode that was left by their deceased parents.

'What was that?! Oh no! Ling'er!' She instantly realized the roar came from her sister's room and she immediately dashed toward it.

She whipped the door open to be greeted by her trembling sister and a glowing magic servant contract array encircling a what appeared to be a tiger cub.

The cub was rather bizarre in that it had an ashy grey coloring with black stripes, had wings like a bat, and a tail like a snake with a blade protruding from the end. It was similar yet different to the manticores she heard about that lived in Europe.

The cub looked furious. It had wide, bloodshot eyes, fur standing on end, serpent like tail lashing about, making deep cuts in the walls and furniture, yet it's body seemed nailed to the floor. It roared endlessly in suffering and rage, glaring at her sister with murderous eyes.

She instantly grasped the situation. It was obvious that her sister had brought home an animal to make a contract with, and had upset the beast in the process.

It was not a simple matter to interfere with the process, and it was clear that her sister and the tiger were locked in a battle of wills. If handled carelessly, both souls could end up irreparably injured.

Fortunately and conveniently, she cultivated the seven soul notes, a soul affecting technique that allowed one to attack, defend, lure, and communicate with souls.

"Ling'er! Are you ok?!" She shouted directly to her sister's soul with the soul notes she cultivated.

"Sister!" She heard a sobbing reply, "Help!"

"Ling'er, let me make a soul link so I can help!" This way, she could join the battle of wills with her sister.

Chen Ling complied readily and allowed a link to be established.

Chen Yan quickly understood the situation upon entering the soul battlefield.

Her sister tried to form a servant contract with the tiger, but the tiger was resisting, which was the obvious thing, and wouldn't be a problem if Chen Ling could subdue the tiger's soul. This is usually not difficult as a humans soul was naturally stronger than a beast's due to their low intelligence, and would be easy if they were of the same level. But the problem was that the tigers soul was too strong, which was strange based on it's age.

Although Chen Ling's soul wasn't weak, and was in fact stronger than others her age due to her environmental hardships and the guidance of her sister, who was an expert, this tiger's soul was abnormally strong. The only reason she was hanging on and her soul not devoured was because the tiger soul seemed to be moving aimlessly and did not seem to be used to controlling it's soul.

Chen Yan used another ability of her seven soul notes, soul communion, which allowed her to listen, speak to, and influence a soul directly.

"Vile beast! How dare you fool me! I play nice for a bit and you think you can do as you wish to me?! What sorcery is this?! What have you done?! Do you think I can't kill you?!" She heard the tigers furious shouts. And concluded that it was mad about the slave contract, and was surprisingly intelligent. She realized this soul was too strong for even her to subdue, it was relieving that it didn't know how to use it's soul, which was an oddity in itself. she decided she should speak to it while it was still learning to control it's soul.

"Ling'er, stop the contract! You can't control this beast! Move your palm away from it's forehead and retrieve your essence blood, you can break the connection this way." Listening obediently, Chen Ling pulled away her palm, and willed her blood to return. She was glad this method worked and the burden on her soul was alleviating.

At the same time the glowing array was dimming and tiger was beginning to regain control of it's body.

"Please calm down. We deeply apologize for this misunderstanding, let's talk about this." Chen Yan spoke soothingly to the tiger's soul, which was settling slightly at the release of it's bonds.

Surprisingly, it froze up and looked directly at her with glaring golden eyes.

"You can speak with me? Are the languages of the abyss not dead? How are you speaking without moving your mouth? Where am I? What did the other one do to me just now?" The tiger was surprisingly talkative.