The Little Demonic Fox
As the boy proceeded towards the lake, he was still preoccupied with what the old man just told him about the mainland. He always had been curious about the mainland, but for some reason, the old man never took him along on the occasions that he visited the mainland, and never let him meet any of his guests from the mainland. When questioned about this, he used to respond with a standard "It's for your own good"
Now, the old man was proactively going to send him to the mainland. And not only that, he was going to join one of the Seven Sovereign Sects, the Ultra Sword Sect. Even if the friend of the old man was going to toss him to a subordinate, a guy tossed over by the vice-head of the sect will probably be taken care of by a subordinate right?
As he went towards the lake, he stepped on something soft. He heard a yelp, after which he felt a set of small teeth biting his foot.
"Ouch" cried the boy, and shot out his hands and firmly held the culprit. In his hands, he held a tiny little silver fox. It had a triangular black mark on its forehead. It stared at him with its cute little eyes and started turning transparent. The boy instinctively tightened his hands around it, and it became completely invisible for a brief moment before it became visible again. It looked a little tired after performing this feat. "Looks like this little fox has awoken its bloodline! To do so when it's so weak, it must be a talented little bugger!" exclaimed the boy.
Just like humans cultivated using spirit energy, demonic beasts cultivated using it too. Humans strengthened their bodies and dantain with spirit energy, while demonic beasts stimulated their demonic bloodline using the same.
All demonic beasts were born as ordinary beasts. All animals in the world have a chance of evolving into a demonic beast with the right conditions. Provided certain conditions are met, beasts can awaken their demonic bloodlines and become demonic beasts. From then onwards, these newly awakened demonic beasts can slowly absorb spirit energy to strengthen their bloodlines and grow stronger.
The Honeysuckle bears he always had to deal with, for example, were one of the most common beasts around the edge of the forests. They had the intelligence of a five-year-old child and were extremely curious about everything. They also had a sharp sense of smell and have the strength twice as great as a fully grown adult could have at maturity. But they were easy to deal with, and even a fourteen-year-old like him could drive them away. But in rare cases, these Honeysuckle bears would awaken their bloodlines and would evolve into a Honeysuckle Demonic bear. Their intelligence would increase exponentially, as would their strength. They also had a chance of getting a bloodline skill during this process. But animals like the Honeysuckle bears have a very low chance of awakening their bloodlines, and the rare cases happen after they have lived for a long time. The earlier the demonic beasts awake the bloodline, the earlier they can start cultivating, and hence higher their future prospects. The offsprings of demonic kings had a chance of awakening their bloodlines shortly after their birth. Not only that, their concentrated bloodline gave them a much smoother cultivation path towards becoming a demonic king.
This little silver fox was lucky enough to awaken its bloodline when it was so weak; it probably must have consumed some sort of treasure by accident. Half of the strongest beasts in the forests started their cultivation journey in this manner. Nevertheless, it had a good chance of becoming a powerful demonic beast.
"I have decided, you are going to be my spiritual pet partner. I'll call you Little Silver from now onwards" he declared, grinning widely at the little fox. The little fox yelped, seemingly in protest, though it was unknown if it was protesting due to the decision to make it a spiritual pet or the stupid name he came up with.
A spiritual pet partner was the life-long companion of a cultivator. Back during the antiquity periods of the Great Azure Continent, a man found a baby beast. Out of sympathy, he cared for it. It awoke its demonic bloodline shortly after. Due to some reason, he formed a special connection with the beast. This was the origin of spiritual pet partners.
A person could only have a spiritual pet partner in his life. The death of either the cultivator or the demonic beast which has this bond can badly affect the other. Demonic beasts had a longer lifespan and matured much slower than humans. Most people never have a spiritual pet partner because even if it helped a lot during the early stages, once the cultivator pulled ahead of the demonic beast, it would be a liability instead of a help.
Ignoring the protests of the little fox, he firmly held it and walked towards the lake.
As he parted the last few branches in his way and was about to strip and dive into the lake, he noticed a figure in the lake. It was a girl, roughly his age. And she seemed to be naked. He saw her clothes scattered on the bank of the lake, quite close to him.
"Uh oh" was the last thought that ran through the boy's head, after which the girl turned around. She looked at him in shock, covered herself clumsily with her arms before opening her mouth wide.....